24 Facts About Jean-Baptiste Dumas

1.

Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas was a French chemist, best known for his works on organic analysis and synthesis, as well as the determination of atomic weights and molecular weights by measuring vapor densities.

2.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas developed a method for the analysis of nitrogen in compounds.

3.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas was born in Ales, and became an apprentice to an apothecary in his native town.

4.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas was one of the founders of the Ecole centrale des arts et manufactures in 1829.

5.

In 1832 Jean-Baptiste Dumas became a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

6.

In 1838, Jean-Baptiste Dumas was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

7.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas was president of Societe d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale from 1845 to 1864.

8.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1860.

9.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas became a member of the National Legislative Assembly.

10.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas was a devout Catholic who would often defend Christian views against critics.

11.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas died at Cannes in 1884, and is buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, in a large tomb near the back wall.

12.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas's is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel tower.

13.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas was one of the first to criticise the electro-chemical doctrines of Jons Jakob Berzelius, which, at the time his work began, were widely accepted as the true theory of the constitution of compound bodies, and opposed a unitary view to the dualistic conception of the Swedish chemist.

14.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas perfected the method of measuring vapor densities which was important in determining atomic weights.

15.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas showed "in all elastic fluids observed under the same conditions, the molecules are placed at equal distances".

16.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas determined the atomic weight of samarium, one of the rare earth elements.

17.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas established new values for the atomic mass of thirty elements, setting the value for hydrogen to 1.

18.

In 1833, Jean-Baptiste Dumas developed a method for estimating the amount of nitrogen in an organic compound, founding modern analysis methods.

19.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas made important revisions to the existing combustion methods with a sophisticated pneumatic trough.

20.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas found that the coughing and dangerous fumes were caused by chlorine present in the candle wax.

21.

Chlorine had been used to whiten the candles, and Jean-Baptiste Dumas concluded that it must have combined during the candle-making process.

22.

Since the trichloracetic acid retained similar properties to acetic acid, Jean-Baptiste Dumas reasoned that there were certain chemical structures that remained comparatively unchanged even if one atom were changed within them.

23.

The basis of this theory rests in the natural history of organism classification, which Jean-Baptiste Dumas learned under the botanist de Candolle.

24.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas married Herminie Brongniart, daughter of Alexandre Brongniart, in 1826.