Berthollet, Claude Louis

Berthollet, Claude Louis

18th Century
Born: Tailloire (France), 1748
Died: Arceuil near Paris (France), 1822
Berthollet studied medicine in Turin (1768). In 1784 he became director of the national Gobelin factories and in 1794 professor of chemistry at the Ecole polytechnique. Berthollet was one of the first chemists to adopt Antoine Lavoisier´s antiphlogistic system. He defended the opinion that the quantitative composition of chemical compounds depends on the relative quantities of the reagents during reactions. His investigations of ammonia and halogen salts were exemplary. He introduced chlorine as bleaching agent. Berthollet was considered one of the leading chemists of his time and was greatly honoured during his lifetime. 

  Encyclopædia Britannica: Berthollet, Claude Louis
French chemist who was the first to note that the completeness of chemical reactions depends in part upon the masses of the reacting substances.