The French state gunpowder administration
In 1775 France's controller-general Turgot founded the Régie des poudres et salpêtres, the state gunpowder administration, replacing private contracts with their permanent shortages and variable powder quality. A young chemist, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, was appointed one of its commissioners; with the post came official quarters and a well-equipped laboratory in the Paris Arsenal, where he would carry out most of his later work.
Lavoisier turned a state gunpowder order into chemical research: he systematically measured the saltpetre content of various sources and developed standard methods of refining. Chemistry became an instrument of state policy; a professional chemical administration took shape around the Régie.
Why this date
exact: 1775, appointment by Turgot; Lavoisier among the four commissioners from 1775 to 1792.
Gillispie’s quote has two oddities: “to serve in effects” for “in effect” and “quipped” for “equipped”. Both appear exactly so on the Encyclopedia.com page itself (checked 2026-10-04, check-quotes script, found-words); they belong to the source, not to us. By decision 036 the quote is given letter for letter as the page has it. A check against the printed Dictionary of Scientific Biography is needed to tell whether these are misprints of the edition or of the digitisation.
Node sources
- Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, «Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent» (Charles C. Gillispie), Encyclopedia.com Verified 5 Oct 2026
In 1775, when Lavoisier was appointed a commissioner of the Royal Gunpowder Administration (Régie des Poudres et Salpêtres), to serve in effects as scientific director, the couple took up residence in the Paris Arsenal. Here Lavoisier quipped a fine laboratory where most of his later scientific work was carried out.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.