| Authorised form of name | Gay-Lussac; Joseph Louis (1778 - 1850) |
| Other forms of name | Joseph Louis Gay- |
| Other forms of surname | Lussac |
| Dates | 1778 - 1850 |
| Nationality | French |
| Place of birth | St Leonard, France |
| Date of birth | 06 December 1778 |
| Place of death | Paris, France |
| Date of death | 09 May 1850 |
| Research field | Chemistry |
| Physics |
| Activity | Education:
Ecole Polytechnique, Paris; Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees
Career:
Began researches on vapour, temperature and terrestrial magnetism; discovered the Law of volumes (1808); Professor of Physics, Sorbonne, Paris (1808-1832); made balloon ascents, including one with J B Biot (FRS 1815) (1804); ascended Vesuvius when it was erupting (1805); Superintendent if the Government manufactory of Gunpowder (1818); represented Haute Vienne in the Chamber of Deputies (1831); Peer of France (1839)
|
| Membership category | Foreign Member |
| Date of election | 06/04/1815 |
| Relationships | Son of Antoine Gay, procureur du Roi, who assumed name of Lussac from a property he held near St Leonard |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DSB
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc 1850 No 76 pp 1013-1023 [in French]
References:
C W P MacArthur, 'Davy's Differences With Gay-Lussac and Thenard: New Light on Events in Paris and on the Transmission and Translation of Davy's Papers in 1810' in NR 1984-85 vol 39 pp 207-228
B Heap, 'From the dust of the Earth? Things come to life: spontaneous generation revisited by Henry Harris' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 107-108
D Knight, 'Test of time. Gay Lussac: scientist and bourgeois, by M Crosland' in NR 2004 vol 58 pp 315-316
Notes:
Obituary is in French |
| Code | NA7195 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| M/081 | Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis | |
| CB/1/1/233 | Letter from Claude Louis Berthollet to Charles Blagden | 1 January 1810 |
| MM/1/7 | Letter from John Dalton, Manchester, to Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac | 5 Aug 1833 |
| IM/001623 | Portrait of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac | nd |
| CB/1/1/231 | Letter from Claude Louis Berthollet to Charles Blagden | 9 July 1809 |
| CB/1/1/227 | Letter from Claude Louis Berthollet to Charles Blagden | 31 August 1808 |
| CB/1/1/224 | Letter from Claude Louis Berthollet, Arcueil to Charles Blagden | 20 March 1808 |
| NLB/2/754 | Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to Emmett, 49 Linver Road, Hurlington | 30 October 1888 |
| EC/1814/37 | Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| CB/1/1/225 | Letter from Claude Louis Berthollet, Arcueil to Charles Blagden | 20 June 1808 |
| AP/32/3 | Unpublished paper, 'Notice sur [Joseph Louis] Gay-Lussac' [A notice on Gay-Lussac] by Jean Baptiste Biot | May 1850 |
| MS/957/39 | Letter from [Joseph Louis] Gay-Lussac, Paris, to Henry Kater, No.1 Union Place, Regent's Park, London | 9 October 1819 |