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The law of conservation of matter states that matter in a closed system cannot be created or destroyed. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier discovered this principle through experiments in sealed chambers and is considered the father of modern chemistry. Albert Einstein later showed that matter and energy are interchangeable. Lavoisier was unable to complete his experiments due to his execution during the French reign of terror.
The law of conservation of matter, also known as the conservation of mass, states that the amount of matter in a closed system never changes. This appears on the surface to be wrong when one looks at the simple problem of what happens to matter when it is burned on Earth. It would appear that matter was destroyed to some extent in the process, and this was believed to be the case until the 18th century. If the Earth were a completely sealed system, the heat, light, sound energy and runaway gases generated in the combustion process would still be detectable. Matter, therefore, can change shape in a closed system, as can energy, but it can never be created or destroyed.
In the 1700s the French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier began to clearly define the principle of the law of conservation of matter, although the actual idea can be traced back to an ancient Greek belief that nothing can arise from nothing. Lavoisier performed experiments in which he created reactions in completely sealed chambers, a novel idea at the time. In his experiments, he measured the weight of all the byproducts of a subsequent reaction and determined that they hadn’t changed. He is credited with the discovery and naming of oxygen as a byproduct of burning materials, which led him to understand the law of conservation of matter. His research earned him the title of father of modern chemistry.
Only more than a century later did Albert Einstein discover that matter and energy are interchangeable. Einstein showed that the law of conservation of matter and energy were just two ways of looking at the same process. Chemistry has now established methods for calculating the molecular weight of substances, so that it is clear that when compounds are combined or separated, the matter has not been lost or destroyed.
Unfortunately, although Lavoisier pioneered conservation of mass research, he was never able to complete his experiments. As a member of an unpopular French group of tax collectors known as the Ferme Generale, he exploited his position to make his fortune and was sentenced to death during the French reign of terror. He asked for a 15-day extension on his execution to complete his scientific experiments, which he thought would be invaluable to posterity. The judge in the case replied, however, that “…the Republic has no need of scientists”, and he was guillotined on May 8, 1794.
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