Antoine Lavoisier turned chemistry into an exact science. That science lies at the heart of the petrochemical industry, the industry that processes crude oil.
Lavoisier, who worked as a tax collector, could only spare one day a week for science. Being a clerk and scientist, numbers were important to Lavoisier. By careful weighing during his experiments, he found that metals became heavier when burnt. He discovered that the difference was caused by the binding of oxygen to the metal.
Four years after the French Revolution in 1789, the anger of the revolutionaries turned on the tax authorities. At first, Lavoisier thought that his standing as a scientist would save him. But the judge decided that the Revolution had no need for science. And so it was that Lavoisier’s head rolled from the guillotine on 8 May 1794. Someone was said to whisper: “It only takes a minute to cut off, but it might take a hundred years before France can produce another head as clever as that.”