Lavoisier and the improvement of gunpowder production/Lavoisier et l'amélioration de la production de poudre - article ; n°1 ; vol.48, pg 95-122

Seymour H.Mauskopf

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Revue d'histoire des sciences - Année 1995 - Volume 48 - Numéro 1 - Pages 95-122
RÉSUMÉ. — Nous examinons trois aspects de la fonction de Lavoisier en tant que régisseur des poudres : la relation de son travail avec la tradition de recherche du XVIIIe siècle visant à l'amélioration balistique de la poudre ; ses recherches relatives à la chimie de l'acide nitrique et de la potasse, menées dans le but de développer une production « artificielle » de salpêtre ; l'impact de la science lavoisienne sur l'amélioration de la poudre. Nous montrons que son influence principale réside dans l'établissement d'une formation scientifique pour les commissaires des poudres. Le cas d'un de ces commissaires, Benoît La Forte est examiné.
SUMMARY. — Three topics are addressed concerning Lavoisier's activities as a régisseur des poudres : the relationship of Lavoisier's work to the eighteenth-century research tradition of the ballistic improvement of gunpowder; Lavoisier's investigations into the chemistry of nitric acid and potash in the context of his efforts to develop « artificial » saltpeter production; the effect of Lavoisian science on the improvement of gunpowder. It is argued that the principal effect came from the institution of scientific training for the commissaires des poudres. The case one such commissaire, Benoît La Forte, is examined.
28 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: REVUE_D-HISTOIRE_DES_SCIENCES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1995
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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M SEYMOUR H. MAUSKOPF
Lavoisier and the improvement of gunpowder
production/Lavoisier et l'amélioration de la production de poudre
In: Revue d'histoire des sciences. 1995, Tome 48 n°1-2. pp. 95-122.
Résumé
RÉSUMÉ. — Nous examinons trois aspects de la fonction de Lavoisier en tant que régisseur des poudres : la relation de son
travail avec la tradition de recherche du XVIIIe siècle visant à l'amélioration balistique de la poudre ; ses recherches relatives à la
chimie de l'acide nitrique et de la potasse, menées dans le but de développer une production « artificielle » de salpêtre ; l'impact
de la science lavoisienne sur l'amélioration de la poudre. Nous montrons que son influence principale réside dans l'établissement
d'une formation scientifique pour les commissaires des poudres. Le cas d'un de ces commissaires, Benoît La Forte est examiné.
Abstract
SUMMARY. — Three topics are addressed concerning Lavoisier's activities as a régisseur des poudres : the relationship of
Lavoisier's work to the eighteenth-century research tradition of the ballistic improvement of gunpowder; Lavoisier's investigations
into the chemistry of nitric acid and potash in the context of his efforts to develop « artificial » saltpeter production; the effect of
Lavoisian science on the improvement of gunpowder. It is argued that the principal effect came from the institution of scientific
training for the commissaires des poudres. The case one such commissaire, Benoît La Forte, is examined.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
MAUSKOPF SEYMOUR H. Lavoisier and the improvement of gunpowder production/Lavoisier et l'amélioration de la production
de poudre. In: Revue d'histoire des sciences. 1995, Tome 48 n°1-2. pp. 95-122.
doi : 10.3406/rhs.1995.1223
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rhs_0151-4105_1995_num_48_1_1223Lavoisier and the improvement
of gunpowder production (*)
Seymour H. Mauskopf (**)
RÉSUMÉ. — Nous examinons trois aspects de la fonction de Lavoisier en
tant que régisseur des poudres : la relation de son travail avec la tradition de
recherche du xvme siècle visant à l'amélioration balistique de la poudre ; ses recher
ches relatives à la chimie de l'acide nitrique et de la potasse, menées dans le
but de développer une production « artificielle » de salpêtre ; l'impact de la science
lavoisienne sur l'amélioration de la poudre. Nous montrons que son influence
principale réside dans l'établissement d'une formation scientifique pour les comm
issaires des poudres. Le cas d'un de ces commissaires, Benoît La Forte est
examiné.
MOTS-CLÉS. — Balistique; alcali fixe végétal; poudre; Lavoisier; acide
nitrique; salpêtre.
SUMMARY. — Three topics are addressed concerning Lavoisier's activities
as a régisseur des poudres : the relationship of Lavoisier's work to the eighteenth-
century research tradition of the ballistic improvement of gunpowder; Lavois
ier's investigations into the chemistry of nitric acid and potash in the context
of his efforts to develop « artificial » saltpeter production; the effect of Lavoi-
sian science on the improvement of gunpowder. It is argued that the principal
effect came from the institution of scientific training for the commissaires des
poudres. The case of one such commissaire, Benoît La Forte, is examined.
KEYWORDS. — Ballistics; fixed vegetable alkali; gunpowder; Lavoisier; nitric
acid; saltpeter.
Lavoisier's activities as a member of the Régie des poudres
(1775-1792) have long been recognized as perhaps the most signifi
cant aspect of the practical and institutional side of his scientific
(*) A version of this paper, under the title, « The Chemists and the Régie des poudres »,
was given in 1989 at the session, « Chemistry : Revolution or Evolution? » of the Summer
Meeting of the British Society for the History of Science in Edinburgh, Scotland. I should
like to thank M. Patrice Bret for reading this manuscript and making some useful sugges
tions for its improvement. The reworking of this paper was carried out during the tenure
of my National Science Foundation grant No. sbe 9212385.
(**) Seymour H. Mauskopf, Duke University, Department of History, 226 Carr Buil
ding, Box 90719, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0719, usa.
Rev. Hist. Sci., 1995, XLVIII/1-2, 95-121 96 Seymour H. Mauskopf
career (1). The most elaborate study has focused on his unsucc
essful attempt to develop a « crash program » in artificial salt
peter production (2), but other aspects of his activities as a régisseur
des poudres have not been so well studied. Nor do we know much
about the background and context of these activities, especially
regarding the study of gunpowder to understand and improve its
action.
It is this topic, with which my own research has made me famil
iar, that I shall treat here. I shall argue that much of Lavoisier's
activities as a munitions scientist was embedded in already-existing
traditions of practical scientific discussion. There are two themes
or issues in particular that thread through such eighteenth-century
discussion. One was the amelioration of gunpowder quality, which
meant for this period primarily the maximization of its ballistic force.
A second was the insurance of an adequate supply of the ingredient
in gunpowder most difficult to secure : saltpeter. In his role as régis
seur, Lavoisier was mainly concerned with the second issue, but
the fruits of his research had implications for the first one too.
Moreover, I shall argue that his concern with the saltpeter supply
may have supplied a context (not fully explored) for one of Lavois
ier's major achievements of the 1770s : the analysis of nitric acid.
Lavoisier was named a founding régisseur when the Régie des
poudres was formed in the summer of 1775 both for his manifest
administrative ability as a fermier général (the other three were
administrators) and « aussi [parce qu'il était] connu par ses lumières
en chymie, essentiellement nécessaires pour ce genre d'aUministra-
tion (3) ». This expression of the importance of chemistry to muni-
(1) Charles C. Gillispie, Science and polity at the end of the old regime (Princeton :
Princeton Univ. Press, 1980), chapter I. 6. A very recent account of the formation and
early history of the Régie can be found in the essay by Patrice Bret, Annexe III : La
Régie des poudres et salpêtres, 1775-1792, in Correspondance de Lavoisier, t. V (Paris :
Académie des sciences, 1993), 261-269. See also Lucien Scheler, Lavoisier et la Régie des
poudres, Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, XXVI/3 (1973), 193-222. For a general account
of Lavoisier's administrative activities see : Arthur Donovan, Antoine Lavoisier : science,
administration, and revolution (Oxford : Black well, 1993).
(2) Robert P. Multhauf, The French crash program for saltpeter production, 1776-1794,
Technology and Culture, XII/2 (1971), 163-181. See also, William A. Smeaton, Two unre
corded publications of the Régie des poudres et salpêtres probably written by Lavoisier,
Annals of Science, XII/2 (1956), 157-159.
(3) Quoted from Edouard Grimaux, Lavoisier, 1743-1794, d'après sa correspondance,
ses manuscrits, ses papiers de famille et d'autres documents inédits (Paris : F. Alcan, 1888),
84, from P. -S. Dupont de Nemours, Mémoires sur la vie de Turgot (Philadelphie, 1782). The improvement of gunpowder production 97
tions undoubtedly expressed a common expectation of the Enligh
tenment for the practical utility of science (4). One objective of
this paper will be to evaluate the practical utility of Lavoisian munit
ions science.
Gunpowder is a mixture of saltpeter (KNO3), sulphur and
charcoal. These ingredients are pulverized separately and then tr
iturated or « incorporated » together by pounding or grinding for
many hours to insure intimate mixture, with some water added
to moisten the mixture into a paste. The paste is then « corned »
or grained to form the final product. The actual manufacture of
gunpowder was a traditional craft with little « scientific » input
before the eighteenth century (5). However, from mid-seventeenth
century at least there had been interest in exactly what transpired
during gunpowder explosion. The most evident physical datum was
that the solid substance, gunpowder, expanded to many times its
volume during explosion through the production of some kind of
elastic fluid. Exactly what was the volumetric ratio of elastic fluid
to original solid gunpowder and what was the nature of the elastic
fluid itself were subjects of investigation and discussion through
out the late seventeenth and most of the eighteenth century (6).
These investigations and discussions appear sometimes to have
been carried out purely for scientific interest; however they were
often part of more practical projects to inc