https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Louis_Jacques_Th%C3%A9nardLouis Jacques Thénard - Revision history2026-06-20T09:49:47ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.2https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Louis_Jacques_Th%C3%A9nard&diff=293609&oldid=previmported>TrottieTrue: Updated short description2025-05-23T00:02:19Z<p>Updated short description</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|French chemist (1777–1857)}}<br />
{{Expand French|topic=bio|date=November 2019}}<br />
{{Infobox scientist<br />
|name = Louis Jacques Thénard<br />
|image = Louis_Jacques_Thénard.jpg<br />
|birth_date = {{birth-date|4 May 1777}}<br />
|birth_place = [[La Louptière]], [[Champagne (historical province)|Champagne]] (present-day [[Aube]]), France<br />
|death_date = {{death-date and age|21 June 1857|4 May 1777}}<br />
|death_place = [[Paris]], France<br />
|residence = <br />
|alma_mater = <br />
|doctoral_advisor = [[Louis Nicolas Vauquelin]]<br />
|doctoral_students = <br />
|known_for = Discovery of [[Hydrogen peroxide]]<br>Co-discovery of [[boron]]<br>[[Brin process]]<br>[[Cobalt blue|Thénard's blue]]<br />
|influences = <br />
|influenced = <br />
|signature =<br />
|field = [[Chemistry]]<br />
|work_institutions = <br />
|awards = [[List_of_fellows_of_the_Royal_Society_S,_T,_U,_V|ForMemRS]] (1824)<br>[[Volta_Prize#Inspiration|Galvanism Prize]] (1809)<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Louis Jacques Thénard''' (4 May 1777{{snd}}21 June 1857) was a French [[chemist]].<br />
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==Life==<br />
He was born in a farm cottage near [[Nogent-sur-Seine]] in the Champagne district<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=2018-11-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead}}</ref><br />
the son of a farm worker. In the post-Revolution French educational system, most boys received scholarships for education up to age 14,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/education-before-and-after-french-revolution-history-essay.php|title=Education Before and After French Revolution History Essay}}</ref> and this allowed him to be educated at the academy at [[Sens]]. He then went at the age of sixteen to study [[pharmacy]] in [[Paris]]. There he attended the lectures of [[Antoine François Fourcroy]] and [[Louis Nicolas Vauquelin]]. He was allowed into Vauquelin's laboratory even though he was unable to pay the monthly fee of 20 francs, due to the requests of Vauquelin's sisters.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Baron Louis-Jacques Thénard}}</ref> But his progress was so rapid that in two or three years he was able to take his master's place at the lecture-table, and Fourcroy and Vauquelin were so satisfied with his performance that they procured for him a school appointment in 1797 as a teacher of chemistry, and in 1798 one as {{lang|fr|[[répétiteur]]}} at the [[École Polytechnique]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=759}}<br />
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==Career==<br />
In 1804 Vauquelin resigned his professorship at the [[Collège de France]] and successfully used his influence to obtain the appointment for Thénard, who six years later, after Fourcroy's death, was further elected to the chairs of chemistry at the [[École Polytechnique]] and the Faculté des Sciences. He also succeeded Fourcroy as member of the academy. In 1821, he was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]. In 1825 he received the title of baron from [[Charles X of France|Charles X]], and in 1832 [[Louis-Philippe of France|Louis Philippe]] made him a peer of France. From 1827 to 1830 he represented the ''[[département in France|département]]'' of [[Yonne]] in the chamber of deputies, and as vice-president of the {{lang|fr|conseil superieur de l'instruction publique}}, he exercised a great influence on scientific education in France. He died in Paris on 21 June 1857. A statue was erected to his memory at Sens in 1861, and in 1865 the name of his native village was changed to [[La Louptière-Thénard]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=759}}<br />
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Above all things Thénard was a teacher; as he himself said, the professor, the assistants, the laboratory &mdash; everything must be sacrificed to the students. Like most great teachers he published a textbook, and his {{lang|fr|Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique}} (4 vols., Paris, 1813–16), which served as a standard for a quarter of a century, perhaps did even more for the advance of chemistry than his numerous original discoveries.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=759}}<br />
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==Research==<br />
Soon after his appointment as {{lang|fr|répétiteur}} at the École Polytechnique he began a lifelong friendship with [[Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac]], and the two carried out many research projects together. For their research, Gay-Lussac and Thénard would receive 30,000 francs from [[Napoleon]] in the third and last installment of the [[Volta Prize|Galvanism Prize]].<br />
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Careful analysis led him to dispute some of [[Claude Louis Berthollet]]'s theoretical views regarding the composition of the metallic [[oxide]]s, and he also showed Berthollet's "zoonic acid" to be impure [[acetic acid]] (1802). In response, Berthollet invited him to become a member of the [[Society of Arcueil]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=759}}<br />
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In 1806 he analysed the chemical composition of the [[Alais meteorite]], which fell in [[Alès]] on 15 March 1806.<ref>Thénard L.&nbsp;J. 1806. ''Analyse d'un aérolithe tombé dans l'arrondissement d'Alais, le 15 mars 1806''. Annales de Chimie 59:103–110.</ref> This was the first [[carbonaceous chondrite]] to be discovered.<ref>{{cite book | last=Marvin | first=Ursula B. | chapter=Meteorites in History: An Overview from the Renaissance to the 20th Century | editor-last1= McCall | editor-first1=G.J.H. | editor-last2=Bowden | editor-first2=A.J. | editor-last3=Howarth | editor-first3=R.J. | title=The History of Meteoritics and Key Meteorite Collections: Fireballs, Falls and Finds| place=London | publisher=The Geological Society | year=2006 |page=53 | isbn=978-1-86239-194-9}}</ref> Thénard found a high carbon content of 2.5 per cent.<br />
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His first original paper (1799) was on the compounds of [[arsenic]] and [[antimony]] with [[oxygen]] and [[sulfur|sulphur]]. In 1807, he began important research into [[ether]]s. His researches on [[sebacic acid]] (1802) and on [[bile]] (1807) deserve mention as well, as does his discovery of [[hydrogen peroxide]] (1818).<ref>L. J. Thénard (1818) [https://books.google.com/books?id=-N43AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA306 "Observations sur des nouvelles combinaisons entre l’oxigène et divers acides,"] ''Annales de chimie et de physique'', 2nd series, vol. 8, pages 306-312; see especially page 308.</ref> In 1799 he developed the pigment known as Thénard's blue in response to a request by [[Jean-Antoine-Claude Chaptal]] for a cheap colouring matter.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=759–760}}<br />
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His name is one of the [[List of the 72 names on the Eiffel Tower|72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}}<br />
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==Works==<br />
[[File:Thénard, Louis Jacques – Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique, 1817 – BEIC 12254341.jpg|thumb|''Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique'', 1817]]<br />
* {{Cite book|title=Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique|volume=1|publisher=Crochard|location=Paris|year=1817|language=fr|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=12254341}}<br />
** {{Cite book|title=Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique|volume=2|publisher=Crochard|location=Paris|year=1817|language=fr|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=12256360}}<br />
** {{Cite book|title=Traité de chimie élémentaire, théorique et pratique|volume=4|publisher=Crochard|location=Paris|year=1818|language=fr|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=12258571}}<br />
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==See also==<br />
*[[Phosphorus trichloride]]<br />
*[[Thénardite]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
'''Attribution:'''<br />
*{{EB1911|wstitle= Thénard, Louis Jacques|volume=26|pages=759–760}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thenard, Louis Jacques}}<br />
[[Category:1777 births]]<br />
[[Category:1857 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:18th-century French chemists]]<br />
[[Category:French Roman Catholics]]<br />
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]<br />
[[Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]<br />
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century French chemists]]</div>imported>TrottieTrue