Dumas, Jean-Baptiste

Jean-Baptiste Dumas studied pharmacy in his youth; in 1816 he went to Geneva , where he worked as an assistant pharmacist. Dumas studied at the University of Geneva . His thesis on the physiology of the nervous system attracted attention. After graduating from university in 1823, he moved to Paris , became an assistant to Jacques Louis Tenard, and until 1840 he worked at the Polytechnic School .

As the son-in-law of the mineralogist Alexander Broniard , he worked with his son, Adolphe Theodor Broniard , on the work “The Chronicle of the Natural Sciences” ( Annales des Sciences naturelles ), published by them in 1823. In the years 1822-1831, Dumas wrote many articles for the “Classical Dictionary of the Natural Sciences” ( Dictionnaire classique d'Histoire naturelle ) by Boris de Saint-Vincent (1778-1846).

Dumas also taught chemistry courses in Athenaeum , at a conference on science and technology, which was the venue for the liberal state opposition (business leaders, scientists). There were many readers of Le Globe , an opposition intelligentsia newspaper, including shareholder Alfons Lavalle , which Dumas helped in 1829 to establish his project: Central School of Arts and Crafts ( l'École centrale des arts et manufactures ), the aim of which was to train civil engineers, "doctors of factories and factories." At the request of Napoleon III at the end of October 1853, Dumas, together with Frederick Kulman , took up the founding of the School of Industrial Arts and Mines ( Lille Central School ).

In 1832, Dumas was elected to the chemistry section of the Academy of Sciences . He then succeeded Louis Jacques Tenard at the department of the Polytechnic School and became a professor in 1835. He worked there until 1840, when he was replaced by Theophile-Jules Peluse . In 1838, Dumas became head of the Department of Organic Chemistry at the Faculty of Medicine. One of his students here was Louis Pasteur , whom Dumas had a great influence on. At the same time, Dumas became Tenar's deputy at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, giving courses of the 2nd semester from 1832 to 1836, and then all courses from 1836 to 1841. In 1840 he received the title of foreign member of the Royal Society of London . With the departure of Tenard Dumas became head of the department of chemistry and in 1841 - dean of the faculty, replacing Jean-Baptiste Bio . At this time, Ignazi Domeiko (1802-1889) studied with him.

In addition to chemistry, Dumas was also engaged in government activities. In 1850-1851, he was Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in the government of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte . At the coronation of the emperor he became a senator. On March 9, 1853, Dumas was appointed Inspector General of Higher Education and Science and was engaged in this until 1868, when he was replaced by Balar . While in this position, Dumas was a member of the Imperial Council for Public Education, in which he was vice president until 1864. Then he was replaced by Ernest de Royer . After that, Dumas became vice president of the Higher Council for Continuing Education in Higher Special Education.

Jean-Baptiste Dumas - father of statesman Ernest Charles Jean-Baptiste Dumas and the grandfather of the French Major General Noel Jean-Baptiste Henri Alfons Dumas .

Academies and Scientific Societies

• Member of the French Academy of Sciences (1832) in which he was permanent secretary in the field of physical sciences from 1868 until his death in 1884.
• Member of the Paris Academy of Medicine (1843)
• President of the Academy of Sciences (1843)
• Member of the International Society for the Study of National Industry (Société internationale des études pratiques d'économie sociale) from 1845 to 1864
• Member of the French Academy (1875).

Ministries

• Member of the National Assembly from the Department of Nor
• Senator
• Minister of Agriculture and Trade (1850-1851)

Other posts

• Member of the Municipal Council of Paris
• Vice President of the Municipal Council of Paris
• Vice President of the Higher Council of Education (1861-1863)
• Chairman of the High Commission for Phyloxer (1871-1885)

Awards

• Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honor (1863)
• Copley Medal (1844)
• Faraday Lecture (1869)
• Alberta Medal (Royal Society of the Arts) (1877)

The scientific works of Dumas relate mainly to the field of organic chemistry . In 1826, he proposed a method for determining the vapor density, with which he determined the atomic mass of several elements ; however, Dumas did not make a clear distinction between an atom and a molecule , which led him to erroneous conclusions. In 1830, he proposed a volumetric method for the quantitative determination of nitrogen in organic compounds (Dumas method).

In 1827, Dumas established the composition of acetone and esters; Together with the French chemist P. Bullet, he came to the conclusion that ethylene, ethyl alcohol and its ethers and esters are derivatives of the same radical, which J. Ya. Berzelius called etherin. Dumas considered Eterin a base similar to ammonia . These ideas were developed into the ethereal theory - one of theories of complex radicals .

In 1833-1834, he studied the effect of chlorine on organic compounds and formulated the rules of thumb for the substitution of hydrogen by chlorine (metalpsy reaction). In 1835, together with the French chemist E. M. Peligo, he studied wood alcohol , and, comparing its composition and properties with the composition and properties of wine alcohol , laid the foundation for the class of alcohols .

In 1839, together with Peligo established that fats are esters . Having received trichloroacetic acid in the same year, he suggested that any elements in chemical compounds could be replaced by others. Based on the results of his research on the metal-substitution of hydrogen with chlorine, he proposed abandoning the electrochemical dualism of Berzelius and put forward the first type theory.

Dumas also defined the empirical formula of indigo (1841), established the existence of the first homological series in organic chemistry - the formic acid series (1843). In 1847, he first received nitriles and developed a general method for their synthesis. In addition to organic chemistry, he studied the effect of food on the chemical composition of milk of various animals and the chemical composition of blood, he also dealt with sericulture, participated in activities to combat phylloxera .

In the 1840s, in collaboration with Bussengo, he wrote a two-volume work, Essai de statique chimique des êtres organisés (published in the Russian translation of Selected Works on Plant Physiology and Agrochemistry).

In 1851-1859, Dumas, like the earlier German doctor Max von Pettenkofer , tried to find ratios in chemical elements similar to those found in homologous series of organic compounds. He showed that the atomic weights of chemically similar elements usually differ from each other by a multiple of eight.

• Traité de chimie appliquée aux arts , Béchet jeune (Paris), 1828-1846, (treatise on applied chemistry in art) in 8 volumes:

1. Tome 1, Proceedings of this author can be found in the Gallica online library. You should search ( French Recherche ) by last name.
2. Tome 2, Proceedings of this author can be found in the Gallica online library. You should search ( French Recherche ) by last name.
3. Tome 3, Proceedings of this author can be found in the Gallica online library. You should search ( French Recherche ) by last name.
4. Tome 4, Proceedings of this author can be found in the Gallica online library. You should search ( French Recherche ) by last name.
5. Tome 5, Proceedings of this author can be found in the Gallica online library. You should search ( French Recherche ) by last name.
6. Tome 6, Proceedings of this author can be found in the Gallica online library. You should search ( French Recherche ) by last name.

• Dissertation sur la densité de la vapeur de quelques corps simples . - Paris: Thuau, 1832. (Thesis on the vapor density of some simple substances).

• Mémoire sur les substances végétales qui se rapprochent du camphre et sur quelques huiles essentielles . - Paris: Thuau, 1832. (Report on substances of plant origin, close to camphor and some essential oils).

• Précis de l'art de la teinture , Béchet jeune (Paris), 1846, The works of this author can be found in the Gallica Internet library. You should search ( French Recherche ) by last name. (Essay on the art of coloring).
• Traité de chimie appliquée aux arts. Partie organique. , Félix Oudart (Liège), 1847. Textes en ligne disponibles sur IRIS: Atlas , tome 1 , tome 2 , tome 3 , tome 4 (Treatise on Applied Chemistry in Art. Organics).
• Traité de chimie appliquée aux arts. Partie inorganique. , Félix Oudart (Liège), 1848. Textes en ligne disponibles sur IRIS: Atlas , tome 2 , tome 3 , tome 4 (Treatise on Applied Chemistry in Art. Inorganic).

• Éloge de MM Alexandre Brongniart et Adolphe Brongniart ...: lu dans la séance publique annuelle de l'Académie des Sciences du 23 avril 1877 . - 1877 ..

• Leçons sur la philosophie chimique [professées au Collège de France, recueillies par M. Bineau], Gauthier-Villars (Paris), 1878, The works of this author can be found in the Gallica Internet library. You should search ( French Recherche ) by last name. (Lessons in chemical philosophy).

• A street in Paris named after Dumas
• The name of Dumas is on the list of 72 names of the most prominent French scientists and engineers, located on the ground floor of the Eiffel Tower.
• Lyceum in Ales, the hometown of Dumas, bears his name.
• The Salendra College also bears the name Dumas.

• Volkov V.A., Vonsky E.V., Kuznetsova G.I. Outstanding chemists of the world. - M .: VSh, 1991 .-- 656 p.
• Jua M. History of Chemistry / Per. with ital. - M .: Mir, 1966.
• Partington JR A history of chemistry. - V. 4. - L. , 1964.