Jean-Antoine
Claude, comte Chaptal de Chanteloup, French chemist and statesman,
was born at Nogaret, Lozère. The
son of an apothecary, he studied chemistry at Montpellier, obtaining
his doctor's diploma in 1777, when he repaired to Paris. In 1781
the States of Languedoc founded a chair of chemistry for him at
the school of medicine in Montpellier, where he taught the doctrines
of Lavoisier. The capital he acquired by the death of a wealthy
uncle he employed in the establishment of chemical works for the
manufacture of the mineral acids, alum, white-lead, soda and other
substances.
His
labors in the cause of applied science were at length recognized
by the French government, which presented him with letters of
nobility, and the cordon of the order of Saint Michel. During
the Revolution a publication by Chaptal, entitled Dialogue entre
un montagnard et un girondin, caused him to be arrested; but being
speedily set at liberty through the intermission of his friends,
he undertook, in 1793, the management of the saltpetre works at
Grenelle. In the following year he went to Montpellier, where
he remained till 1797, when he returned to Paris.
After
the coup d'état of the 18th of Brumaire (November 9, 1799)
he was made a councillor of state by the First Consul, and succeeded
Lucien Bonaparte as minister of the interior, in which capacity
he established a chemical manufactory near Paris, a school of
arts, and a society of industries; he also reorganized the hospitals,
introduced the metrical system of weights and measures, and otherwise
greatly encouraged the arts and sciences. A misunderstanding between
him and Napoleon (who conferred upon him the title of comte de
Chantelout) occasioned Chaptal's retirement from office in 1804;
but before the end of that year he was again received into favor
by the emperor, who bestowed on him the grand cross of the Legion
of Honor, and made him treasurer to the conservative senate.
On
Napoleon's return from Elba, Chaptal was made director-general
of commerce and manufactures and a minister of state. He was obliged
after the downfall of the emperor to withdraw into private life;
and his name was removed from the list of the peers of France
until 1819. In 1816, however, he was nominated a member of the
Academy of Sciences by Louis XVIII, Chaptal was especially a popularizer
of science, attempting to apply to industry and agriculture the
discoveries of chemistry. In this way he contributed largely to
the development of modern industry, he died at Paris on the 30th
of July 1832.
The
process of adding sugar to unfermented wine in order to increase
the final alcohol level after fermentation is known as chaptalization
after him.
His
literary works exhibit both vigour and perspicuity of style; he
wrote, in addition to various articles, especially in the Annales
de chimie:
Élémens
de Chymie (3 vols., 1790; new ed., 1796-1803)
Traité du salpétre et des goudrons (1796)
Tableau des principaux sels terreux (1798)
Essai sur le perfectionnement des arts chimiques en France (1800)
Art de faire, de gouverner, et de perfectionner les vins (1 vol.,
1801; new ed,, 1819)
Traité théorsque et pratique sur Ia culture de Ia
vigne, &c. (2 vols., 1801; new ed., 1811)
Essai sur le blanchiment (1801)
La Chimie appliquée aux arts (4 vols., 1806)
Art de la peinture du coton en rouge (1807)
Art du peinturier et du digraisseur (1800)
De l'industrie française (2 vols., 1819)
Chimie appliquée à l'Agriculture (2 vols., 1823;
new ed., 1829). |
