Table Of Content^
^m. GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD
MtMHMMM U Mt MUMMM LUCRETIUS
I ttltlll llt 12.
EPICTETUS
Introductory Volumes:
MARCUS AURELIUS
1. The Great Conversation VIRGIL
13.
2. The Great Ideas I PLUTARCH
14.
3. The Great Ideas II TACITUS
15.
MM«MM»»MMM»MMMMM««>«M>M«M»M» PTOLEMY
16.
HOMER
4. COPERNICUS
KEPLER
AESCHYLUS
5.
SOPHOCLES PLOTINUS
17.
EURIPIDES
AUGUSTINE
18.
ARISTOPHANES
THOMAS AQUINAS
19. I
HERODOTUS
6.
THUCYDIDES THOMAS AQUINAS4I
20.
PLATO DANTE
7. 21.
ARISTOTLE CHAUCER
8. I 22.
ARISTOTLE MACHIAVELLI
9. II 23.
HOBBES
HIPPOCRATES
10.
GALEN RABELAIS
24.
11. EUCLID 25. MONTAIGNE
ARCHIMEDES
SHAKESPEARE
26. I
APOLLONIUS
NICOMACHUS SHAKESPEARE
27. II
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^
GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD
f^^^^^^^
GILBERT GIBBON
28. 41. II
GALILEO
KANT
HARVEY 42.
«f^
AMERICAN STATE ^£v^h
CERVANTES 43.
29.
PAPERS
3*^^
FRANCIS BACON THE FEDERALIST
30.
MILL
DESCARTES J. S.
31.
SPINOZA BOSWELL
44.
MILTON LAVOISIER
32. 45.
FOURIER
PASCAL
33. FARADAY
NEWTON
34. HEGEL
46.
HUYGENS
GOETHE
47.
LOCKE
35.
BERKELEY MELVILLE
48.
HUME
DARWIN
49.
SWIFT
36.
MARX
STERNE 50.
ENGELS
y.^-^g* ^^^,
FIELDING
37.
TOLSTOY
51.
MONTESQUIEU
38.
shf~J .v ROUSSEAU 52. DOSTOEVSKY
ADAM SMITH WILLIAM JAMES
39. 53.
GIBBON FREUD
40. I 54.
^^^^?^^^^^^^^^i^?^^^
GREAT BOOKS
WORLD
OF THE WESTERN
ROBERT MAYNARD HUTCHINS, EDITOR IN CHIEF
»»»»«
»
, i » »
4h
LAVOISIER
FOURIER
FARADAY
»
»»*«««««««<»
» »
Mortimer Adler, Associate Editor
J.
MembersoftheAdvisoryBoard: StringfellowBarr, Scott Buchanan,John Erskine,
ClarenceH. Faust,AlexanderMeiklejohn,Joseph Schwab, MarkVan Doren.
J.
Editorial Consultants: A. F. B. Clark, F. L. Lucas, Walter Murdoch.
Wallace Brockway, Executive Editor
ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY
BY ANTOINE LAURENT LAVOISIER
ANALYTICAL THEORY OF HEAT
BY JEAN BAPTISTE JOSEPH FOURIER
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES
ELECTRICITY
IN
BY MICHAEL FARADAY
ARCHBISH1P MITTY S^SGH SOH0.
Library
Avenue
5000 Mitty
San Jose, CA 95128-1897
William Benton, Publisher
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, INC.
CHICAGO LONDON TORONTO GENEVA SYDNEY TOKYO MANILA
• • • • • •
miLMd
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
The Great Books
ispublished with the editorial advice of thefaculties
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No part ofthis work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
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©
I952
by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Twenty-seventh Printing, 1984
Copyright under International Copyright Union
All Rights Reserved under Pan American and Universal Copyright
Conventions by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 55-10351
International Standard Book Number: 0-85229-163-9
25432
GENERAL CONTENTS
ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY, Page 1
By Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
Translated by Robert Kerr
ANALYTICAL THEORY OF HEAT, Page 169
By Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier
Translated by Alexander Freeman
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES
IN ELECTRICITY, Page 261
By Michael Faraday
ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Antoine Lavoisier, 1743-1794
Lavoisierwasbornin Paris, August 26, 1743. after he had presented four such papers, two
His father was attorney to the Parliament of on hydrometry and two on gypsum, he was
Paris. His motherwas the daughter ofthe sec- elected a member of the Academy. His youth
retaryto the Vice-AdmiralofFrance andheir- excitedcomment, and, asafriendofthefamily
ess to a considerable fortune. remarked, at theageoftwenty-fivehehad ob-
After completing his elementary education tained "a position which is usually wron, with
Lavoisierwas sent to the College Mazarin. His greatdifficulty,bymenpasttheirfiftiethyear."
early ambitions were literary rather than sci- Desirous of securing a larger income for re-
entific, and in 1760 he won second prize in a search, Lavoisier, shortly afterhis nomination
rhetorical contest. Although on leaving the to the Academy, bought an interest in the
college he went on to prepare for law, and re- Ferme, anassociationoffinancierswhohadthe
ceived his Licentiate in 1764, he devoted him- privilege of collecting the national taxes in re-
self to science, studying, with well-known turn forafixed annual sum paidin advance to
teachers ofthe time, mathematics, astronomy, the Government. His friends at the Academy
botany, mineralogy, geology, and chemistry. did not entirely approve of this association,
He also began to conduct experiments and ob- but it did provide him with the money he
servations of his own. One of the earliest was sought, and it also made him acquainted with
in meteorology; he made barometrical obser- Farmer-General Paulze, whose daughter he
vationsseveral times dailyand engagedothers married in 1771.
in thesamepursuitwith theaimofdiscovering Lavoisier entered further into public life
the laws governing the weather. His zeal for when the Government tookoverthe manufac-
investigation was so great that at the age of ture of gunpowder. Upon his suggestion, Tur-
nineteen he decided to cut himself off from all got, Minister of the Treasury, canceled the
social activity; he gave ill-health as an excuse private production of gunpowder and estab-
and for several months lived in retirement on lishedtheRegiedespoudres, afour-manadmin-
a diet of milk. istrative committee headed by Lavoisier.
Hisformalcareerasascientistbeganin 1763 Withthisappointmenthewasassignedahouse
when he was invited by Guettard, his teacher at the Arsenal, where with his own funds he
in geology, to collaborate in preparingthe first established a fully-equipped laboratory, which
mineralogies! atlas of France. Lavoisier's part he madeavailableto allscientists interestedin
of the project consisted largely of collecting his work. As his scientific fame increased, the
data; he kept elaborate notebooks which indi- laboratory became a meeting place for promi-
cate that he was not only amassing material nent scientists, and among his guests he num-
butanalysinganddevelopingideasforlaterre- bered Priestley, Franklin, Watt, Tennant, and
search. While engaged in thiswork, heentered ArthurYoung. Lavoisier alwaysretained an
the contest held by the French Academy of interest in younger scientists, providing finan-
Science forthebestessayonmethods forlight- cialassistanceformanyandmakinglaboratory
ing the streets of a large city at night. The es- assistants ofothers, amongwhomwas the Du-
says were divided into two groups, practical pont who later went to America and founded
and scientific, and while the prizewas given to the munitions firm.
entries in the first group, Lavoisier alone was Althoughoccupiedwithmanypracticalcon-
singledoutfromthesecond forspecialmention cerns in connection with the Ferme and the
andagoldmedalfromtheKing.Theworkwith Regie des poudres, Lavoisier reserved six hours
Guettardalsoyielded materialwhichLavoisier aday, fromsixtonineinthemorningand from
worked up in the form of memoires to be pre- seven to ten at night, for his scientific work,
sented to the Academy of Science. In 1768, and one full day each week for experiments.
IX
