Amadeo
Avogadro was an Italian scientist noted to be one of the founders of physical
chemistry. He was actually a physics professor but he experimented in both
physics and chemistry using mathematics to base most of his findings. Avogadro
is well known for his hypothesis known as Avogadro's Law. His law states
that a given temperature, equal volumes of gases contain the same number
of molecules equal to 6.02252.1023.
Avogadro received no recognition for his hypothesis or his constant
during his lifetime because he was not considered as a brillant emperimenter
but rather, a careless one. He also did not back up his hypothesis with
an impressive display of experimantal results. He also did not have an
impressive reputation for accurate experimental work. Another reason why
his hypothesis was not recognized was because of the fact that his work
was published in obscure jounals and maybe because he was very isolated
from the mainstream of chemistry done in his time.
Avogadro's work was recognized nearly fifty years after he had made his hypothesis. Two years after his death, his colleague showed how the use of Avogadro's number could solve many of the problems in chemistry. This time Avogadro's paper was looked at more carefully over a wider and more distinguished group of scientists, thus his work was finally recognized. Avogadro's work helped other scientists to solve more problems and develop more theories.
Avogadro has based his work on the findings of Joseph Gay-Lussac in 1809. Gay-Lussac had discovered that all the gases when subjected to an equal rise in temperature, expand by the same amount. Avogadro therefore derived his hypothesis. He also made it clear that the gas particles need not be individual atoms but had made a distinction between the atoms of a substance and its molecules.
Avogadro himself was born on June 9, 1776 in Turin, Italy. He began his career in 1796 by obtaining a doctorate in law and practicing as a lawyer for three years after. In 1800, he began to take private lessons in mathematics and physics and decided to make the natural sciences his profession. He was appointed as a demonstrator at the Academy of Turin in 1806 and the Professor of Natural Philosophy at the College of Vercelli in 1809, and in 1820, he was appointed the professor of mathematical physics. Avogadro died on July 9, 1856 in Turin, Italy.
Interviewer: Ladies and gentlemen, we are honored to have visitors from
19th century Italy, Count Amedeo Avogadro and his wife the Countess Felicita.
Professor Avogadro's theories of gases are accepted and used wherever
chemistry is taught. Let's learn more about this great contributor to science
as we
take advantage of the Avogadros' kind acceptance of our invitation
to be interviewed.
Int: Bien venuto, Count & Countess Avogadro, and thank you for joining
us this evening! Let's begin by asking how you would prefer to be addressed.
You
have the titles Count, Doctor of Law, and Professor Emeritus. What
is your choice as we talk this evening?
AA: Bon giorno! Please just call me Amedeo, and my wife Felicita, or you may use any of the titles if it pleases you.
Int: Amedeo, did you plan to devote your career to the study of chemistry and physics all through your early education?
AA: No, no! My father was a distinguished lawyer, senator, and later
advocate general and senate president. He expected that I would follow
in his footsteps.
Actually, as a young boy I was educated at home. Then later I studied
law and took my bachelor in jurisprudence when I was sixteen. I earned
my doctorate
in ecclesiastical law four years later, in 1796.
Int: Why did you change what appears to have been a very successful career?
AA: Well, I did enjoy practicing law, and pursued the vocation for five
years. I also had an interest in natural philosophy, which you would call
science, and
began studying mathematics and physics in 1800. I would certainly suggest
to students of all ages to pursue their specific interests and see what
may become
of that pursuit.
Int: What area of scientific study first attracted you, Amedeo?
AA: I had been particularly impressed by some discoveries of my compatriot
Alessandro Volta. My brother Felice and I turned our attention to the study
of
electricity during 1803. The satisfaction I received from our experiments
and studies convinced me that physical science would be my life's occupation.
Int: Can you tell us what resulted from those experiments?
AA: Si, my brother and I were nominated to the Royal Academy of Sciences
of Turin the following year, which is a great honor, you know. Also, I
had the
opportunity to become a demonstrator at the Royal College of the Provinces.
Int: So you made your living as a scientist rather than a lawyer?
AA: I was still very active in public affairs and held many public offices
connected with national statistics, meteorology, and weights and measures.
I also was
a member of the Superior Council on Public Instruction. But si, the
vast majority of my energies were devoted to science and teaching.
Int: Where did you do your teaching, Amedeo?
AA: I was a Professor of Physics and Mathematics at the Royal College
in Vercelli from 1809 to 1821. Then I held the Chair of Mathematical Physics
at
Turin for most of the period from 1821 until my retirement in 1850.
There was a time between 1823 to 1833 when political influences disrupted
my tenure,
and it was held by someone else for part of that time.
Int: Count, were there professional organizations or societies for scientists in Italy at that time?
AA: Si. I became a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin in
November 1819. However, I did not seek or recieve election to either the
Paris
Academy or the Royal Society of London.
Int: Let's get back to the personal side for a moment, if you don't mind. I understand you have quite a family, Count Avogadro.
AA: Si, si! Felicita and I rear six sons. None were as interested in
the sciences as I, but found the law profession more appealing, as had
my father. For
instance, Luigi was a general in the Italian army, and Felice (named
after his uncle, of course), became president of the Courtof Appeal.
Int: Professor, what inspired your now famous hypothesis?
AA: A contemporary of mine, Gay-Lussac, published a memoir in 1809 which
showed that all gases expand to the same extent with rise in temperature.
To
my mind this made it obvious then that all gases, at a given temperature
and pressure, must then contain the same number of particles per unit volume.
It is
really quite simple....
FA: Forgive my interruption, but my dear husband is far too modest!
It was actually a most ingenious and daring interpretation which led him
to draw this
momentous conclusion. Amedeo never received proper credit at the time
you know. It was almost fifty years later that the scientific world finally
realized the
value of his hypothesis.
Int: Were these conclusions published for the scientific community to review?
FA: I'd like to read from Amedeo's actual memoir of 1811, to demonstrate
his now accepted correctness of thought and gentle generosity of spirit,
even
though at the time his conclusions were rejected by Dalton and ignored
by Berzelius:
"M. Gay-Lussac has shown in an interesting memoir... that gases always
unite in a very simple proportion by volume, and that when the result of
the union is a
gas, its volume is very simply related to those of its components.
But the quantitative proportions of substances in compounds seem only to
depend on the
relative number of composite molecules which result. It must be then
admitted that very simple relations also exist between the volumes ofgaseous
substances
and the numbers of simple or compound molecules which form them. The
first hypothesis to present itself in this connection, and apparently even
the only
admissible one, is the supposition that the number of integral molecules
in any gas is always the same for equal volumes, or always proportional
to the
volumes." And the second part of the hypothesis is perhaps more important;
it was certainly the most daring.
Int: Really, Countess Felicita! Won't you tell us more about this "second part" that you speak of?
FA: You see, Amedeo realized that Gay-Lussac's experiments also showed
that particles did not have to be individual atoms, but rather could be
combinations of atoms. For instance, hydrogen gas particles could be
made up of two atoms of hydrogen, and water could be three atoms per particle--
two
of hydrogen and one of oxygen. I read again from the memoir:
"We suppose... that the constituent molecules of any simple gas whatever...are
not formed of a solitary elementary molecule (atom), but are made up of
a
certain number of these molecules united by attraction to form a single
one."
AA: That's the part that Dalton and Berzelius couldn't accept, you know,
especially the diatomic molecules. It meant that many of the atomic weights
that
Dalton had put forward were wrong. According to my hypothesis hydrogen
was 1/16 as heavy as oxygen, not 1/8 as he thought.
Int: Let's talk more about this particle controversy. I understand that
there was some confusion about the use of the words "atom" and "molecule"
in your
memoir.
AA: In the original paper, which was published in 1811, I avoided using
the word "atom." Looking back now, that may have been a mistake, but things
were
very different then, you understand. There was no real agreement on
what an atom was. Rather, I distinguished between the various types of
particles using
the terminology suggested earlier by Macquer and Fourcroy:
molécule, a general term denoting an atom or a molecule
molécule intégrante, meaning a molecule of a compound
molécule constituante, denoting a molecule of an element which could consist of more than one particle
molécule élémentaire, meaning an elemental atom
Int: Well, Dr. Avogadro, I can see how this topic could be confusing to readers of your memoir.
AA: As I said, perhaps a mistake...
Int: It certainly sounds like this hypothesis of yours had people thinking! What effect did it have on theories of the time?
AA: An important contribution was in deriving relative weights of individual
molecules. If the number of particles in equal volumes of gases is equal,
it allows a
very useful relationship: the ratio of the weights of equal volumes
of gases is equal to the ratio of the weights of single particles of each
individual gas. For
example:
weight of 1 L oxygen (1.429 g) / weight of 1 L hydrogen (0.0899 g) = 15.9 / 1.
thus, individual oxygen particles are 16 times as heavy as individual hydrogen particles.
Int: So, was this famous hypothesis the end of your scientific work?
AA: Oh no, I continued to studies in physics and chemistry almost to the end of my life.
Int: I'm glad you brought that up, Count, since it's a bit of a touchy subject. When did you die?
AA: On July 9, 1856, in Turin. The same city that saw my birth eighty years before.
Int: And I understand that it was some time after your death that this famous hypothesis was finally accepted.
AA: Si. My countryman Cannizzaro presented a paper at the Karlsruhe
Congress in 1860, which expounded a system of atomic weight determinations
based
largely on my work. It was favorably received.
Int: Any comments as to why you think it took so long for your hypothesis to gain recognition?
FA: Please, may I answer once again for my dear husband? I'm afraid
he is too close to this topic to answer objectively, and there are several
reasons his
work was neglected for so long.
Int: By all means, Countess!
FA: First of all, there's that lack of clarity in the use of the term
"molecule." Also, Amedeo was not known for his experimental techniques,
and he did not have
an impressive accumulation of results to support his hypothesis. He
was predominantly a theorist, not an experimenter. Then he tried to extend
his theory of
polyatomic molecules to metallic elements with no experimental evidence.
That didn't help his credibility.
Int: No, I imagine it didn't. I understand also that organic chemistry
was getting most of the attention in the first half of the 19th century.
Analysis and
classification of organics were really the hot topic.
FA: Si, a good point. Also, Berzelius' view of similar atoms repelling
was the dominant view of the time. Amedeo's diatomic molecule conflicted
sharply with
this view. I think the biggest problem, however, was that Amedeo was
intellectually isolated from the chemical community. He was on the Italian
side of the
Alps doing his research while the French chemists were in the eye of
the scientific community. Amedeo did value his privacy, and his family
always came first.
Int: Well, it sounds like the influential chemists of the day just weren't
ready to give your work a very careful hearing during your lifetime, Professor.
Now, of
course, your hypothesis is considered a keystone of modern chemistry,
providing a vital link between Dalton's atomic hypothesis and Cannizzaro's
atomic
theory.
Thank you again, Count and Countess Avogadro, for helping us to understand
a little better this important hypothesis and the times in which it was
developed.
Good bye to you both!
FA: Arrevederci!
AA: Ciao.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Isaac Assimov, Assimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Doubleday, 1964.
Eduard Forber, Ed., Great Chemists, Interscience Publications, 1961.
Charles Coulston Gillispie, Ed., Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. I, Charles Scribners' Sons, N.Y., 1970.
Mario Morselli, Amedeo Avogadro, A Scientific Biography, Kluwer Academic Publishers, USA, 1984.
"Review," a review of the book Avogadro and Dalton: The Standing in
Chemistry of Their Hypotheses, by Dr. Andrew Meldrum, Nature, No. 1926,
Vol.
74, Sept. 27, 1906, pp.537-8.
Edgar C. Smith, "Amedeo Avogadro," Nature, No 2196, Vol. 88, Nov. 30, 1911, pp. 142-3.
Sir William A. Tilden, Famous Chemists: The Men and Their Work, 1921, 1968.
Trevor I. Williams, Ed., A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, Halsted Press/John Wiley & Sons, 1974.
Gayle Brickert-Albrecht and Dan Morton
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