‘Public’ Science: Hydrogen Balloons and Lavoisier's Decomposition of Water

Summary The balloon mania between 1783 and 1785 put an extraordinary strain on the Paris Academy of Sciences, threatening its status as the highest tribunal of European science. Faced with repeated royal directives and public frenzy, the Academy manoeuvred carefully to steer the research toward the hydrogen balloon and thereby to maintain its scientific superiority. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier seized this moment when the promise of 'the empire of airs' brought science to the centre of public attention to push his theoretical reform for chemistry. He utilized the established protocol of the Academy and the resources of the Republic of Letters to broadly publicize his first decomposition of water in April 1784. Once he attained the publicity and the balloon fever began to cool, he staged a much more elaborate experiment for the experts in February 1785. Although this second, large-scale experiment cost much expense and effort, Lavoisier never published a full account. The differential care given to the two experiments can only be understood in their divergent rhetorical contexts. The written accounts in 1784 addressed the court of public opinion, while the exclusive performance in 1785 aimed at the court of experts to inaugurate the collaborative phase of the Chemical Revolution. I wish to thank Trevor Levere, Marie Thebaud-Sorger, and an anonymous referee, for their helpful comments, and Dr Dürr, for guiding me through the Lyons Academy Archive. Notes 1For a succinct chronology, see Mi Gyung Kim, Affinity, That Elusive Dream: A Genealogy of the Chemical Revolution (Cambridge, MA, 2003), 371–72. 2Sidney M. Edelstein, 'Priestley settles the water controversy', Chymia, 1 (1948), 123–36; Robert E. Schofield, 'Still More on the Water Controversy', Chymia, 9 (1964), 71–76. 3Maurice Daumas and Denis Duveen, 'Lavoisier's Relatively Unknown Large-Scale Decomposition and Synthesis of Water, February 27 and 28, 1785', Chymia, 5 (1959), 113–29 (116). 4Jan Golinski, 'Precision Instruments and the Demonstrative Order of Proof in Lavoisier's Chemistry', Osiris, 9 (1994), 30–47; idem. '"The Nicety of Experiment": Precision of Measurement and Precision of Reasoning in Late Eighteenth-Century Chemistry', in The Values of Precision, edited by M. Norton Wise (Princeton, NJ, 1995), 72–91. 5Kim (note 1), 372–89. 6Frederic Lawrence Holmes, Lavoisier and the Chemistry of Life: An Exploration of Scientific Creativity (Madison, 1984), 237–41. 7'Développement des dernières expériences sur la décomposition et la recomposition de l'eau', Journal Polytype des Sciences et des Arts, February 1786; reprinted in Oeuvres de Lavoisier, edited by J.B. Dumas and Edouard Grimaux, 6 vols. (Paris, 1864–1893), tome V, 320–34. 8Jean-Pierre Poirier, Lavoisier: Chemist, Biologist, Economist (Philadelphia, PA, 1996), 186. 9The classic account is Faujas de Saint-Fond, Description des Expériences de la Machine aérostatique de MM. de Montgolfier (Paris, 1783) and Premiere Suite de la Description des Expériences aérostatiques de MM. de Montgolfier (Paris, 1784); Recent historical studies are James Martin Hunn, The Balloon Craze in France, 1783–1799: A Study in Popular Science (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 1982); Charles Coulston Gillispie, The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783–1784 (Princeton, NJ, 1983); Marie Thebaud-Sorger, 'L'air du Temps'. L'aérostation: savoirs et pratiques à la fin du XVIIIe siècle (1783–1785) (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Ecole des Hautes Etudes, 2004). As Dr Thebaud-Sorger points out, the identity of the 'air' in the balloon was still evolving at the time, although I employ the terms hot-air balloon and hydrogen balloon here for convenience. 10Vincenzo Ferrone, 'The Man of Science', in Enlightenment Portraits, edited by Michel Vovelle (Chicago, 1997), 190–225. 11For the mobilization of animate and inanimate allies, see Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France (Cambridge, MA, 1988). 12Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (Paris, 1686) and Digression sur les anciens et les modernes (Paris, 1688); Leonard M. Marsak, Introduction to The Achievement of Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (New York, 1970); Charles B. Paul, Science and Immortality: The Eloges of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1699–1791) (Berkeley, CA, 1980); A. Niderst, Fontenelle (Paris, 1991); Aram Vartania n, Science and Humanism in the French Enlightenment (Charlottesville, VA, 1999), 5–44. 13Mary Terrall, The Man Who Flattened the Earth: Maupertuis and the Sciences in the Enlightenment (Chicago, 2002), esp. 154–60. 14Mary Terrall, 'Gendered Spaces, Gendered Audiences: Inside and Outside the Paris Academy of Sciences', Configurations, 3.2 (1995), 207–32; idem. 'Metaphysics, Mathematics, and the Gendering of Science in Eighteenth-Century France', in The Sciences in Enlightened Europe edited by William Clark, Jan Golinski, and Simon Schaffer (Chicago, 1999), 246–71. 15Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, 31–43; Anne Goldgar, Impolite Learning: Conduct and Community in the Republic of Letters, 1680–1750 (New Haven, CT, 1995). 16Geoffrey V. Sutton, Science for a Polite Society: Gender, Culture, and the Demonstration of Enlightenment (Boulder, CO, 1995). 17The exhibition of Vaucanson's automaton (the flute player) in 1738 charged three livres, equivalent to the weekly wage of a young ouvrière. They counted 7500 ticket sales; Reed Benhamou, 'From Curiosité to Utilité: The Automaton in Eighteenth-Century France', Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 17 (1987), 91–105. 18Robert M. Isherwood, Farce and Fantasy: Popular Entertainment in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Oxford, 1986), 49–55. 19Michael R. Lynn, 'Enlightenment in the Public Sphere: The Musée de Monsieur and Scientific Culture in Late-Eighteenth-Century Paris', Eighteenth-Century Studies, 32 (1999), 463–76. 20Julia Simon, Mass Enlightenment: Criticial Studies in Rousseau and Diderot (Albany, NY, 1995). 21Henry Guerlac, Lavoisier—The Crucial Year (Ithaca, NY, 1961); Holmes (note 6); Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Lavoisier: Mémoires d'une révolution (Paris, 1994). For a distilled account, see Kim (note 1), 279–334. 22Toby A. Appel, The Cuvier–Geoffroy Debate: French Biology in the Decades before Darwin (Oxford, 1987); Mi Gyung Kim, 'Constructing Symbolic Spaces: Chemical Molecules in the Académie des Sciences', Ambix, 43 (1996), 1–31; idem. 'Lavoisier, the Father of Modern Chemistry?' in Lavoisier in Perspective, edited by Marco Beretta (Munich, 2005), 167–91. 23Marie Boas Hall, 'The Royal Society's Role in the Diffusion of Information in the Seventeenth Century, 'Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 29 (1974–1975), 173–92; Barrie Walters, 'The Journal des savants and the Dissemination of News of English Scientific Activity in Late Seventeenth-Century France', Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 314 (1993), 133–66. 24Sutton (note 16). 25'Premier Registre de la Société des gens de lettres, qui s'assemblent dans le Bibliothèque de M. Richard de Ruffey', Ms. 1628, Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon, 14 and 28 February and 2 May 1753. 26R.P.J. Galien, L'art de naviguer dans les airs. Amusement physique et géométrique, précédé d'un mémoire sur la Nature & la formation de la Grêle, dont il est une conséquence ultérieure, 2nd ed. (Avignon, 1757). 27In England, these studies developed in tandom; Robert E. Schofield, The Lunar Society of Birmingham: A Social History of Provincial Science and Industry in Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford, 1963); idem. The Enlightenment of Joseph Priestley: A Study of His Life and Works from 1733 to1773 (University Park, PA, 1997); Christa Jungnickel, Cavendish: The Experimental Life (Cranbury, NJ, 1999); Jenny Uglow, The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World (New York, 2002); Trevor Levere and Gerard L'E Turner eds. Discussing Chemistry and Steam: The Minutes of a Coffee House Philosophical Society, 1780–1787 (Oxford, 2002). 28Guerlac, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier: Chemist and Revolutionary (New York, 1975). 29For a brief analysis of the content, see Kim (note 1), 315–21. 30 Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome VII, fascicule II, 404–42. Patrice Bret, 'Power, Sociability and Dissemination of Science: Lavoisier and the Learned Societies', Lavoisier in Perspective edited by Marco Beretta (Deutsches Museum, 2005), 129–52. 31Lavoisier to Bucquet, 28 January 1775 in Oeuvres de Lavoisieri (note 7), tome VII, fascicule II, 471. 32C.E. Perrin, 'The Lavoisier–Bucquet Collaboration: A Conjecture', Ambix, 36 (1989), 5–40; E. McDonald, 'The Collaboration of Bucquet and Lavoisier', Ambix, 13 (1966), 74–83. 33For example, see Lavoisier's invitation to Benjamin Franklin, 8 June 1777, in Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome VII, facsicule III, 601. 34W.A. Smeaton, 'Guyton de Morveau's Course of Chemistry in the Dijon Academy', Ambix, 9 (1961), 53–69; Guyton de Morveau, L.B. Hughes Maret, and J.F. Durande, Elémens de chymie, théorique et pratique, rédigés dans un nouvel ordre, d'après les découvertes modernes, 3 vols. (Dijon, 1777–1778). 35 Expériences et observations sur différentes espèces d'air, translated by Gibelin, 5 vols. (Paris, 1777–1780). 36Emeric David, 'Mon Voyage de 1787', Ms. 5947, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal; discussed in Leonard N. Rosenband, Papermaking in Eighteenth-Century F rance: Management, Labor, and Revolution at the Montgolfier Mill, 1761–1805 (Baltimore, MD, 2000), 26. 37For the geographical distribution of Montgolfier paper products, see Rosenband (note 36), 28. For the transactions with Beaumarchais, see the two letters from Etienne Montgolfier to Beaumarchais during 1781–1782; Tissandier Collection, Box 7, Library of Congress. 38François Fosca, Histoire des cafés de Paris (Paris, 1935), 19. 39M.P.L. Duret, 'Notice sur Joseph Montgolfier', Musée de l'air, Montgolfier papers [Hereafter cited as MA] I.1; discussed in Gillispie (note 9), 10–15. 40This paragraph is based on Peter Jackson Austerfield, The Development of Large-Scale Production and Utilisation of Lighter-than-Air Gases in France, Britain and the Low Countries from 1783 to 1821, With Special Reference to Aeronautics and the Coal-Gas Industry (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University College London, 1981), 24–34. 41Although Homberg is a rather obscure figure in the historiography, he played a crucial role in shaping the Academy's chemical programme at the beginning of the century. His work inspired Lavoisier and Richard Kirwan, one of the leading philosophical chemists of the 1780s; Kim (note 1), 65–110, 303–11, and 268–77. 42M.P.L. Duret, 'Notice manuscrite sur Etienne Montgolfier', MA I.2. 43Joseph Montgolfier, 'Mémoire lu à l'académie de Lyon', in Faujas, Premiere Suite (note 9), 98–111, 100–101. 44Gillispie (note 9), 15–17 and 21–24. 45Etienne Montgolfier to Desmarest, 16 December 1782, reproduced in Comte de la Vaulx et Paul Tissandier, Joseph et Étienne de Montgolfier (Annonay, 1926), Planche VI and 26–27; For a summary in English, see Gillispie (note 9), 21–22. 46'Extrait des délibérations des Etats particuliers du pays de Vivarais du Jeudi Matin 5 Juin 1783', Planches XVI–XVII in la Vaux et Tissandier (note 45). 47 'Extrait des délibérations des Etats particuliers du pays de Vivarais du Jeudi Matin 5 Juin 1783', Planches XVI–XVII in la Vaux et Tissandier (note 45). Planche XXI. 48A report by Condorcet, Academy Dossier 19 July 1783. 49 Journal de Paris, 27 July 1783. 50Thomas M. Kavanagh, Esthetics of the Moment: Literature and Art in the French Enlightenment (Philadelphia, PA, 1996). 51 Journal de Paris, 28 August 1783. 52Lynn (note 19); Christine Pevitt, The Man Who Would be King: The Life of Philippe d'Orléans, Regent of France (New York, 1997); Amédée Britsch, La maison d'Orléans à la fin de l'ancien régime. La jeunesse de Philippe Egalité (1747–1785) d'après des documents inédits (Paris, 1926). 53Tom D. Crouch, The Eagle Aloft: Two Centuries of the Balloon in America (Washington, DC, 1983), 13. 54Isherwood (note 18); Thomas E. Crow, Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century France (Yale, CT, 1985). 55 Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la République des lettres en France, depuis MDCCLXII jusqu'à nos jours; ou Journal d'un observateur, contenant les Analyses des Pieces de Théâtre qui ont poru durant cet intervalle; les Relations des Assemblées Littéraires; les notices des Livres nouveaux, clandestins, prohibés; les Pieces fugitives, rares ou manuscrits, en prose ou en vers; les Vaudevilles sur la Cour; les Anecdotes & Bons Mots; les Eloges des Savans, des Artistes, des Hommes de Letres morts, &c.&c.&c [commonly attributed to Bachaumont; Hereafter cited as Mémoires secrets], 8 August 1783. 56 Mercure de France, 20 September 1783 (Journal politiq de Bruxelles, 16 September), 120. 57 Journal de Paris, 28 August 1783. 58Franklin to Richard Price, 16 September 1783 in The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Albert Henry Smyth (New York, 1907) [Hereafter cited as The Writings], vol. 9, 99. 59 Journal de Paris, 11 and 12 September 1783. 60Franklin to R. Price, 16 September 1783, in The Writings (note 58), vol. 9, 85. 61 Journal de Paris, 11 and 12 September 1783. 62Lavoisier, 'Mémoire dans lequel on a pour objet de prouver que l'eau n'est point une substance simple', Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome II, 334–59. 63Monge was following Volta's earlier experiment which effected combustion of inflammable air and dephlogisticated air with an electric spark; C.E. Perrin, 'Lavoisier, Monge, and the Synthesis of Water: A Case of Pure Coincidence?' British Journal for the History of Science, 6 (1973), 424–28. 64 Mémoires secrets (note 55), 9 September 1783. 65Franklin to Banks, 30 August 1783 in The Writings (note 58), vol. 9, 82. 66Franklin to Banks, 8 October 1783 in The Writings (note 58), vol. 9, 106. 67See the letter from Lavoisier to Montgolfier, 14 September 1783, in Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome VII, Facsicule III, p. 743. For the central role Meusnier played in aeronautic engineering, see Gillispie (note 9), 98–118. 68Rochefoucauld to Lavoisier, 20 September 1783 in Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome VII, facsicule III, 745–46. 69Lavoisier to Rochefoucauld, 25 September 1783, Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome VII, Facsicule III, 736–40. 70'Lettre ecrite de S. Pétersbourg, par M. Rome, à M. Sage, de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Oct. 4th 1783' in Faujas, Description (note 9), 189–90. 71Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Banks, October 8 1783 in The Writings (note 58), vol. 9, 106. 72 Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Banks, October 8 1783 in The Writings (note 58), 81, 83, 105–106, and 115. 73Austerfield (note 41), 43–54 and 71–109; Marie Thebaud-Sorger, 'L'air chaud et l'hydrogène, les dessous in soupçonnés d'un débat scientifique', Enquête des cahiers de sciences et vie, 63 (2001), 26–34. 74'Rapport fait à l'Académie des Sciences sur la machine aérostatique', Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences, 1783, 1–25; reprinted in Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome III, 719–35. 75'Extrait d'un mémoire lÛ par M. lavoisier à la séance publique de l'Académie royale des sciences, du 12 novembre, sur la nature de l'eau', Observations sur la physique, 23 (1783), 452–55 (455). 76 Mémoires secrets (note 55), 12 October 1783. 77Faujas, Premiere Suite (note 9), 98–111. 78'Lettre à M. l'Abbé de Fontenai', Journal de France, 10 December 1783. 83L-S Mercier, 'Le premier décembre', Le Tableau de Paris, 2, 886–89. Translated in Panorama of Paris, edited by J.D. Popkin (University Park, PA, 1999), 196. The word 'physics' [la physique] in the eighteenth century did not refer to our modern discipline of physics, but retained the Aristotelian sense of 'physics' which encompassed most branches of knowledge about nature acquired in systematic, causal studies. Some major demarcations were taking hold, however, usually leaving chemistry and natural history outside the boundary of the all-encompassing category of 'physics'. Likewise, the 'physicist' [physicien] did not refer to a specialist in physics, although the most widely recognized type of physicien in public culture was associated with the practice of experimental physics such as electricity. The contemporaries often translated French la physique and physicien as 'natural philosophy' and '(natural) philosopher'. 79'Lettre sur le Globe aérostatique', Journal de Monsieur, 6 (1783), 57–72, 57. 80 Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome III, 740, dated 23 November by Daumas, but 23 December 1783 by Hunn (note 9), 323. If Hunn is right, Lavoisier would have been less prophetic than pensive about the balloon mania. In either case, he must have been worried throughout December as the balloon craze intensified. 81Faujas, Premire Suite (note 9), 48–55; Quite valuable are a manuscript account of the day-to-day operations by one of the ouvriers (Tissandier Collection, Library of Congress, Box 3) and Charles, 'Sécond Mémoire', Ms. 2104, Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France. Also, see the secondary sources in note 9. 82Gaston Tissandier, Histoire des Ballons et des Aéronauts célèbres (Paris, 1887), 48. 84 Journal de Paris, 9 December 1783. 85 Mémoires secrets (note 55), 9 December 1783. 86Charles, 'Second Mémoire', Ms. 2104, Bibliothèque de l'Institut; discussed in Hunn (note 9), 313. 87Meusnier, 'Mémoire sur l'équilibre des machines aérostatiques, sur les différens moyens de les faire monter & descendre, & spécialement sur celui d'exécuter ces manoeuvres, sans jeter de lest, & sans perdre d'air inflammable, en ménageant dans le ballon une capacité particulière, déstinée à renfermer de l'air atmosphérique', Observations sur la physique, 25 (July 1784), 39–69; discussed in Hunn (note 9), 336–37 and Gillispie (note 9), 100–103. 88 Journal de Paris, 2 December 1783 and 'Calcul des différentes élévations auxquelles a dÛ parvenir le Globe Aérostatique de vint-six pieds, lancé du Jardin des le premier 1783, d'après la des que Machine a Journal de Paris, 25 December 1783. Journal Science on as Public CA, 2002). de de aérostatique de 1784), and et vol. 11 1784), cited in Hunn (note 9), the of in the brief see R. in the and in the French Eighteenth-Century Studies, 17 (note 1), de sur les expériences de MM. de Montgolfier, Robert & Charles, les moyens de les & Faujas, Premiere Suite (note 9), 6 1783. (note Holmes (note 1783, livres, while to from to livres, about 1783, de des Académie royale des Sciences, 12 December 1783. Académie royale des Sciences, 20 December 1783. promise to have been Thebaud-Sorger (note 9), Journal de Paris, 23 December 1783. The machine water to the as as a Mercure de France, 20 December 1783. Vaux et Tissandier (note did not care much for the was about the to his Joseph to December 1783, de France, 9 December 1783 December 1783. Mercure de France, 20 December 1783. de France, 16 December 1783. Mercure de France, 27 December pour la à la de MM. Charles & Journal de Paris, 3 January 1784. 10 December 1783. Académie des sciences et de discussed in Hunn (note Journal de Paris, 28 January 1784. Histoire (1783), see the summary in Gillispie (note 9), sur les points qui les pour les machine Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome II, and (note Lavoisier to de 1 May Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome VII, Facsicule (note 19 May 1784. an at and a of the on of his de for a less of to Lavoisier, 8 January of the in Paris Charles de an on of the to Lavoisier, 12 February Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome VII, facsicule and in the see Gillispie (note 9), à M. Faujas de Saint-Fond, par M. in Faujas, Description (note 9), 'Notice sur le de l'Académie royal des sciences [Hereafter cited as 51 and in the 'Mémoire sur le de du inflammable & de dans de Mémoires (note 1783, on 17 Lavoisier and J.B. 'Mémoire par la décomposition de que n'est point une substance & a moyens en inflammable qui Mémoires (note 1784), reprinted in Oeuvres de Lavoisier (note 7), tome II, Journal de Paris, 30 April Mémoires secrets (note 55), 25 April 1784 (note 1), and S. from to to the for a Large-Scale Synthesis of Water by Lavoisier and Meusnier in 1785', of Science, 10 and the of the Enlightenment in France (Cambridge, MA, Charles Gillispie, Science and in The of the (Princeton, paragraph is based on Hunn (note 9), Also, see Meusnier (note de Lavoisier', Oeuvres de Lavoisier, vol. the of Science in the of The of the French Enlightenment (Chicago, 2002), and (note account is based on a note by in to Lavoisier's the November 1784 see Gillispie (note 9), a of the Daumas, Lavoisier et (Paris, (note (note (note 1), and (note 1), and (note 'The of the Public Sphere, and the of the French (1996), Morveau, & Description de de Dijon, contenant le des la des les des machines & les (Dijon, 1784), Holmes, Lavoisier—The Crucial Year (Princeton, NJ, and Simon and the and the Experimental Life (Princeton, 'The House of in Seventeenth-Century Jan Golinski, Science as Public Chemistry and Enlightenment in (New York, the of Kim (note (note

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.