Antoine Lavoisier--Father of Modern Chemistry.

ANTOINE LAVOISIER FAThER OF mOdERN chEmISTRy Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) was born in Paris. One of the great figures in science, he is often called father of modern chemistry. Priestly, in 1774 had heated brick red calx (mercuric oxide), obtaining back mercury, and in addition a combustible gas, with most unusual properties, He called it “dephlogisticated air” (oxygen). It was held that combustible objects, were rich in phlogiston (Greek -to set on fire) and the process of combustion involved loss of phlogiston. However, the phlogiston theory could not explain many things.