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CHAPTAL, Jean-Antoine, Comte de Chanteloup (1756-1832, chemist). Four autograph letters signed and one unsigned to Monsieur de Puymaurin [Nicolas-Joseph Marcassus de Puymaurin, Syndic général de Languedoc] and his son, Casimir de Puymaurin, n. p. [Montpellier], 2 November 1788-21 February 1790, 14½ pages, 4to, address panels, seals (one integral leaf removed, seal tears, occasional light stains, one small paper tape repair).
Colourful letters to a friend describing the reception of the news of the Revolution in Montpellier: 'le retour de M[onsieu]r Necker, la fuite des Polignac, du c[om]te dartois et des ministres ... ont jette toutes nos tetes dans le delire ... vous verries tout Montpellier avec(?) la cocarde ... les femmes la portent en guise de noeud ... nos magistrats qui ont l'air de rire de ceci la portent à la boutonnière' (24 July 1789). Other topics include his gratification on receiving his nobility, his university courses, the state of trade and industry and local appointments. The last letter includes instructions for distributing copies of his Eléments de Chimie to various scholars and a bookseller and advertising it in Toulouse.
Chaptal, professor of chemistry at Montpellier from 1781, continued his work there and in Paris during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, and was a pioneer in the industrial use of chemistry. As director of the Grenelle saltpetre works he greatly improved the manufacture of gunpowder. During the Consulate he was Minister of the Interior. He was invited to America by Washington and to Austria by Metternich, but chose to continue his work in France.
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Colourful letters to a friend describing the reception of the news of the Revolution in Montpellier: 'le retour de M[onsieu]r Necker, la fuite des Polignac, du c[om]te dartois et des ministres ... ont jette toutes nos tetes dans le delire ... vous verries tout Montpellier avec(?) la cocarde ... les femmes la portent en guise de noeud ... nos magistrats qui ont l'air de rire de ceci la portent à la boutonnière' (24 July 1789). Other topics include his gratification on receiving his nobility, his university courses, the state of trade and industry and local appointments. The last letter includes instructions for distributing copies of his Eléments de Chimie to various scholars and a bookseller and advertising it in Toulouse.
Chaptal, professor of chemistry at Montpellier from 1781, continued his work there and in Paris during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, and was a pioneer in the industrial use of chemistry. As director of the Grenelle saltpetre works he greatly improved the manufacture of gunpowder. During the Consulate he was Minister of the Interior. He was invited to America by Washington and to Austria by Metternich, but chose to continue his work in France.
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