Madame Lavoisier immediately smiled and nodded, “Your Highness, I would be more than willing to lend a hand, if you need it.”
Joseph hadn’t expected Lavoisier to hold his wife in such high regard, and although he was somewhat surprised, he still expressed his gratitude, “It would be truly wonderful to have your help.”
Lavoisier continued, “Your Highness, although Marianne has never attended university, you can absolutely trust her experimental operation skills. In fact, she has been managing my laboratory for these past years.
“I would set the experimental plans weekly, but when it comes to the actual experimental operations, her efficiency is even higher than mine.”
It was only after Lavoisier’s explanation that Joseph realized that Lavoisier’s wife had been learning chemistry experiments by his side since they were married, becoming his de facto assistant. One could say that in Lavoisier’s experimental achievements, her contribution was indelible.
Joseph once again thanked Mr. and Mrs. Lavoisier, then started to engage in casual conversation with them.
While they were talking, Joseph suddenly caught sight of a strange painting on the Lavoisier’s wall, with a yellow background, neatly filled with odd symbols—two triangles stacked together, circles with “tridents,” glowing “suns,” and so on—resembling the recipe for a wizard’s potion.
Following his gaze, Lavoisier revealed a proud smile, “Your Highness, that is the periodic table I created. I have discovered 33 elements, and countless dazzling objects in this world are composed of these tiny things!
“Look, that one is hydrogen, that one is oxygen, and this is gold…”
Seeing Joseph’s bewildered expression, he quickly explained, “Oh, what we call elements are, in chemical terms, substances that cannot be decomposed any further by any method.”
“Ah, thank you for explaining,” Joseph finally caught on.
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what elements were, but he was astonished that Lavoisier and his contemporaries, the chemists, could perform a great deal of effective research with these “wizard’s spells”-like elemental symbols.
He suddenly felt that perhaps he could help improve Lavoisier’s research efficiency, which might allow him to devote more time to the trial production of fulminate mercury.
After pondering for a moment, he pointed to the element table on the wall and asked, “Mr. Lavoisier, do these symbols have any special meaning?”
Lavoisier paused for a moment, then shook his head, “Nothing special, Your Highness. In fact, most of them are drawn following traditional customs.”
What he referred to as “traditional customs” was actually alchemy. In the early stages of research into chemical elements, even many concepts originated from alchemy, such as the “phlogiston” which Lavoisier had debunked, and the “Air Element,” among others. Thus, directly using alchemical symbols for elements was quite fitting.
Joseph pondered and said, “If there’s no special meaning, why draw them so complicatedly?
“What if we were to represent elements directly with Latin letters? That might be much more convenient. Ah, do you have paper and pencil here?”
Lavoisier quickly gestured towards the study, “Over there, Your Highness.”
Joseph followed him to the upstairs study, picked up a pen, and wrote down a “C” and an “O” on paper, “For example, these represent carbon and oxygen respectively.
“Then, carbon dioxide…”
He recalled the 18th-century chemistry knowledge he had learned, where today’s carbon dioxide seemed to be called carbonic acid, so he corrected himself, “Then carbonic acid could be written like this.”
He promptly wrote down “CO2” and added some symbols between the letters, resulting in “C+2O= CO2.”
Lavoisier’s eyes widened at the sight, “Your method of writing reaction processes… is indeed very clear and concise!”
He glanced at the “wizard’s spells” he had written on the manuscript nearby, unable to hide his excitement, “I dare say, if we were to teach students using your method, the time they spend in each class would be cut in half!”
Joseph added, “We could use the first letter of the Latin word for each element as the symbol for that element, and if there are duplicates, we could use the first two letters. This not only simplifies the writing but also makes it easier to remember.”
“Exactly! Your suggestion is incredibly innovative!”
Lavoisier pulled out a sheet of paper and swiftly wrote out 33 letters in less than 20 seconds, immediately appearing even more excited, “Your Highness, you are a genius… oh, no, your mind must have been kissed by God Himself!
“If we were to follow the old method, I wouldn’t have finished even half of these in such a short time, and it wouldn’t have been as clear as using letters, especially for representing reaction processes. This would definitely greatly increase the efficiency of chemical research! Your Highness, may I use this method in my ‘Elements of Chemistry’?”
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“Of course,” Joseph had suggested the alphabetical element symbols so that the ‘Elements of Chemistry’ could be completed more quickly.
Seeing Lavoisier already engrossed in organizing the new symbols, he prepared to take his leave but caught a glimpse of a document on the corner of the desk—’Recommendations on the Standard of Length’.”
He casually picked up the three-page document and found it was something Lavoisier had co-authored with mathematician Monge for the French Academy of Sciences. It proposed using the “meter” as the standard unit of length and urged the academy to establish a “Standards Committee” as soon as possible.
Joseph then remembered that Lavoisier was indeed a key member of the future “Standards Committee.”
He himself wanted to promote the unification of measurement standards in France, and the most suitable person to lead the endeavor was right before his eyes!
Lavoisier, seeing the Crown Prince looking at his ‘Recommendation,’ explained, “Your Highness, the use of measurement units in the academic community is very chaotic right now. This causes a great deal of negative impact on everyone’s research. For instance, scholars in Paris and Marseille who wish to discuss a problem have to waste half an hour just to agree on which unit of measurement to use.”
Joseph nodded, “You are absolutely right! And it’s not just the academic community, in practical production, not having a unified measurement standard also causes a lot of problems.”
He put the document back on the desk, looking at Lavoisier, “I’ve heard that the preparations for the Academy’s ‘Standards Committee’ are very slow. If necessary, perhaps I could help push the matter forward.
“For instance, I could take care of the funding issues, with the Royal Family establishing the committee.”
“That would be excellent!” Lavoisier rejoiced. He had long been fed up with the dilly-dallying of the Academy of Sciences, and the Crown Prince’s reputation for being young and efficient was well-known throughout Paris. If the Crown Prince were to preside over the matter, France would certainly have its own standard unit of length very soon.
“You have brought a light of hope to the academic community of France!”
Joseph continued, “Moreover, I hope that this is not just about setting a unit of length; we should take this opportunity to also unify the units for mass, temperature, heat quantity, and so on.”