Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 08 May 1794
- A chemist, a nobleman, and a tax collector, Antoine de Lavoisier is famous for the law of indestructibility of matter, and he also demonstrated that water is a compound of oxygen and hydrogen.
On this day in 1794, the famous French chemist Antoine Lavoisier was executed by guillotine.
He is considered to be the “Father of Modern Chemistry”, and his work regarding the exact measurements in chemistry is particularly important.
Antoine Lavoisier is famous for the law of indestructibility of matter, and he also demonstrated that water is a compound of oxygen and hydrogen.
Lavoisier was born to a wealthy family. In his twenties, he bought a share in the “Ferme générale” (literally “general farm”).
It was a tax farming financial company which advanced the estimated tax revenue to the royal government in return for the right to collect the taxes. This was something akin to an outsourcing regarding tax policy.
It seems that the “Ferme générale” made up about half of the total French budget, which means it controlled enormous financial resources.
At the time of the French Revolution, the former members of the “Ferme Générale” were attacked by revolutionaries. Lavoisier and his colleagues (about 20 people) were convicted and executed.
Lavoisier was guillotined at the centre of the square, on this day in Paris (the “Place de la Révolution” or now the “Place de la Concorde”).
