Journal Archive

For thirty years after its recognition as a new element platinum resisted all attempts to melt it, first in the early porcelain furnaces and later by means of enormous burning glasses. Then in April 1782, just two hundred years ago, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier finally succeeded in bringing about its fusion on a small scale by using a blast of oxygen, the gaseous element discovered a few years earlier by Joseph Priestley. Lavoisier repeated his experiment three months later before a most distinguished audience at the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris.