Napoleon, Berthollet, and the Law of Mass Action

HIST 7

Dean F. Martin, dmartin@cas.usf.edu, Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, SCA 400, Tampa, FL 33620 and Barbara B. Martin, Department of Chemstry, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620.
Students may well wonder how a fundamental law such as the Law of Mass Action came to be formulated. The answer is an interesting integration of history and chemistry. When Napoleon embarked on his Egyptian Campaign in the late eighteenth century, he was accompanied by a group of French savants, including a trusted advisor, Claude Louis Berthollet. During the course of his assignments in Egypt, Berthollet discovered a unique nitron lake that provided a unique insight and the ultimate development of the Law of Mass Action. Owing to the actions of the British fleet under the leadership of Admiral Nelson, the campaign was a military failure for Napoleon, but it resulted in a success for Chemistry, as well as for Egyptology.
 

General Papers
8:45 AM-12:00 PM, Sunday, August 19, 2007 Seaport -- Plaza C, Oral

Division of the History of Chemistry

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007