50 
-On the 8th of November, letters pa- 
tent were granted to JoHN Russet, Efq. 
R. A. of Newman-tireet, London, for 
an apparatus named the S¢/enographia.— 
A very copious account of this ingenious 
and learned apparatus flall be given in 
our next Magazine. 
On the 3if of Oétober, Mr. Ep- 
WARD THoMason, of Birmingham, 
fora new method of making foot-fteps 
for coaches, &c. : 
Original Anecdotes. —Life of Antoine Laurent Lavoifier. [Jan. 
On the fame day, Mr. Epmunpb 
Lioyp, of London, for a tea-kettle or 
boiler. 
On the 28th of June, Mr. W. Bar- 
LEY, of Manchefter, for an improve- 
ment in the working of fteam-engines. 
On the 4th of November, Mr, 
Cuaries TrustTep, of Overfley, in 
Warwickfhire, for an improved repeat- 
er, to be applied to common watches 
and clocks. 
—— EEE eee 
ORIGINAL ANECDOTES. AND REMARKS 
a OF 
EMINENT 
LIFE AND LABOURS OF LAVOISIER. 
NTOINE LAuRENT LAVOISIER was 
* born at Paris, Aug. 16, 1743, and 
received a learned education; which he 
fedulcufly improved. When. only three 
and twenty years of age, the Academy 
of Sciences, April 9, 1766, prefented 
him with a-gold medal, for his differta- 
tion on the beft mode of enlightening, - 
during the night, the ftreets of.a great 
city. Iwo years afterwards, he was in- 
troduced into that celebrated literary fo- 
ciety, to whofe fervice he ever after de- 
voted his labours, and became one of its 
moft.ufeful affociates and coadjutors. 
His attention was fucceilively occupied 
with every branch of phyfical:and ma-. 
thematical fcience, the pretended con- 
verfion of water into earth, the analyfis 
of gypfum in the neighbourhoed of Pa- 
ris, the criftallization of falts, the effects 
produced by the grande de loupe of the 
garden of the Infanta, the project of 
bringing water from l’Yvette to Paris, 
the congelatien ef water, and the phe- 
nomena of thunder and the aurora bo- 
realis. 
Journeys undertaken in concert-with 
GuETTARD into every diftrict of France 
enabled him to procure numberlefs ma- 
terials towards a defcription of the hi- 
thological. and mineralogical empire ; 
thefe he arranged into a. kind of chart 
which wanted tittle ei being completed. 
They ferved alfo as. a. ground-work. for 
a more laborious work of his on,the re- 
volutions of the globe, and the forma- 
tion of .Gouches dela Terres aswork of 
which two. beautiful fketches.are to be 
feen in the Memoirs of the French Aca- 
demy,-for,-1772.and 1787.,- All the:for- 
tune and ail the time of Lavoisier 
-were devoted to the culture of the {ci- 
ences, nor did he feem to have a prepen- 
PERSONS. 
derating inclination for any one, in par- 
ticular, until an event, fuch as feldom 
occurs in the annals of the human mind, 
decided his choice, and attached him 
thenceforth exclufively to chemiftry ;—a 
purfuit which has fince rendered his name 
immortal. 
The important difcovery of elaftic 
fluids was juft announced to the phiiofo- 
phical world. Prigstitey, BLAcK, 
CAVENDISH, and MacBrRIpDE, had 
opened to phyfiolegifts a fort of new cre- 
ation ; they had commenced a new 2ra 
in the annals of genius which was to be- 
come equally memorable with thofe of 
the compafs, printing, eleétricity, &c, 
It was about the year 1770, that La- 
VoIsier, ftruck with the importance 
and grandeur of this difcovery, turned 
his attention to this inexhauftible foun- 
tain of truths, and inftantly perceived, 
by a kind of inftin@, the glorious career 
which lay before him, and the influence. 
which this new f{cience would neceffarily 
have over the whole train of -phyfical re- 
fearches. Having once entered into this 
path, till then unexplored, he inftanely 
became an inventor, diffipated a hott of 
errors and prejudices, and became the. 
founder of a new doétrine, the fuccefs 
of which is more than fufficient to eter- 
nize his name and memory. Ne fooner 
had the difcoveries of BLACK and Ca- 
VENDISH arrived in France, than LA-. 
VOISIER dircéted his whole attention te 
their experiments, the pruceffes of which 
he repeated and varied in a variety of 
ways, fo as to eftablifh and enlarge the 
refults of the Englifh philofuphers. His 
great objeét being toannounce new faéts, 
or-to Hluftrate fuch as were already pub- 
lic, he collated and compared his obfer- 
vations, and reduced them into a com- 
plete fyftem of doGrine. ‘Towards me 
- ¢ > : €2 
