Laurent

Abstract

Auguste Laurent (La Folie, nr. Langres, Haute-Marne, 14 September 1808-Paris, 15 April 1853), the son of a wine-merchant, was in 1826–9 an external student in the École des Mines in Paris (in titles of his papers he calls himself Ancien ÉlÈve de l’École des Mines’). He was assistant to Dumas at the École Centrale (1831) and (from 1833) to Brongniart at the SÈvres porcelain factory. He resigned from SÈvres in 1835 and lived in a garret in the Rue St. André, Paris, where he had a private laboratory and took in pupils. In 1836 he took a post with Laugier, a perfumer, where he had a laboratory and carried out research; he drew a small sum as salary occasionally when he required it. In December 1837 he took the Paris doctorate. In 1838 he became professor at Bordeaux and married in 1839. He had drawn 10,000 francs as arrears of salary from Laugier, but he lost this in a commercial undertaking. In 1843 he visited Liebig in Giessen. In 1844 he was made Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur but never wore the decoration, and in 1845 he left Bordeaux for Paris, where he worked in a laboratory at the École Normale put at his disposal by Balard, but (it is said) his modesty kept him from using anything but the cheapest apparatus and chemicals. When Faraday became an associate of the Académie des Sciences in 1845, Laurent took his place as corresponding member; he was elected a Foreign member of the Royal Society in 1849 and of the Chemical Society in 1850. In March 1848 Laurent definitely resigned his chair at Bordeaux and replaced Peligot as Assayer in the Paris Mint, where he converted a damp cellar into a private laboratory.