Rouelle, Guillaume-Francois

Macquer was not, indeed, the first to introduce the phlogistic theory into France. Several prominent chemists and teachers had adopted it in their philosophy. Such were Stephen Geoffroy (1672-1731), Duhamel de Morveau (1700-1781), and Guillaume Francois Rouelle (1703-1770). Yet, by common consent Macquer is considered the most prominent and most enthusiastic French advocate of the phlogistic philosophy. Macquer was born in Paris of Scotch ancestry, followers of the Stuarts who migrated to France on the expulsion of that dynasty. The original Scotch... 

Guillaume Francois Rouelle Elements, Principles, and Instruments... 

Almost every important French chemist in the middle years of the eighteenth century attended lectures that Guillaume Francois Rouelle (1703-70) gave at the King s Garden (the Jardin du roi) in Paris. He was a lively lecturer, dismissive of the theoretical excesses of other lecturers, and anxious to make his lectures be practical demonstrations of chemical phenomena. His style was scarcely that of traditional academics. In the heat of his experiments, he would roll up his sleeves, get his hands and forearms and sometimes his face and shirt dirty, and show how chemistry was above all a science of practice. This was not just rhetoric for Rouelle, practice was a crucial part of chemistry. Rouelle had more than important theoretical ideas to communicate. He had innovative views about principles and instruments, and these views brought together concepts that Stahl had kept distinct. 

FIGURE 193. Fully assembled chemical balance belonging to Guillaume Francois Rouelle, demonstrator at the Jardin du Roi in Paris, depicted in the eighteenth-century encyclopedia published by Diderot and D Alembert. G.F. Rouelle s demonstrations inspired Antoine Lavoisier to enter chemistry. Rouelle was a firm phlogis-tonist, and in less than two decades, his former student would demolish phlogiston with the modern theory of oxidation. 

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