science · 29 May 1767 · 257 years ago
birth
Born 29 May 1767; died 2 Dec 1804 at age 37.
French engineer and chemist, inventor of illuminating gas. He was born in the charcoal-burning town of Bruchay, France. In 1797 he began work that led to his invention of the first gas lighting. Heating sawdust in a glass tube over a flame produced a flammable gas. It smelled badly, and was smoky. He used the gas distilled from wood in his Thermolampe ("heat lamp") which he patented and exhibited in 1799. For several months he exhibited in 1801 a large version of the lamp in a Paris hotel. On the day of the ceremony for Napoleon's coronation in 1804, Lebon was robbed and fatally stabbed. William Murdoch, working independently in Scotland at the same time, produced, purified and stored gas; and more successfully introduced gas lighting.
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