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Biography and Works of Henry Louis Le Chatelier Essay

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While researching the greatest chemists that have ever lived, I could not help but notice one who was missing from the list. Boyle, Mendeleev, and Lavoisier were on everyone’s list; and rightfully so, but I believe that people overlook the outstanding work of Henry Louis Le Chatelier. Le Chatelier studied chemistry extensively in school and made great discoveries as a teacher of the science at colleges in France. He is most known for the principle named after him: Le Chatelier’s Principle, which I will go into detail with later in the paper. My goal in this paper is to bring to light the significance of Le Chatelier’s life and his work in the field of chemistry and science.
To achieve this goal I have organized my paper into four …show more content…

All my life I maintained respect for order and law. Order is one of the most perfect forms of civilization (L. Guillet)”. As a child, Le Chatelier attended College Rollin where he studied engineering (Henry Louis Wiki). When he turned 19, after only one year of instruction in specialized engineering, he followed in his dad's tracks by enrolling in the Ecole polytechnique on October 25, 1869. Like all the scholars of the school, in September 1870, Le Chatelier was named second lieutenant and took part in the Siege of Paris against the German and Prussian forces. After dazzling achievements in his technical schooling, he entered the Ecole des Mines in Paris in 1871 which was a prominent French engineering school at the time (Lette).
During his life he married Genevieve Nicolas and they had four daughters and three sons. Five of his seven children went on to enter scientific fields (pdf).
Le Chatelier’s Career and Scientific Work
Le Chatelier spent two years from 1875 to1877 as a mining engineer in the provinces, and after this period he returned to the Ecole des Mines as a chemistry lecturer in 1877. There he had a well-equipped laboratory that he could use for testing and research by contributing to the Firedamp

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