GUYTON DE MORVEAU, LOUIS BERNARD

born Jan. 4, 1737, Dijon, Fr. died Jan. 2, 1816, Paris French chemist, educator, and aeronaut whose proposals for a revised chemical nomenclature helped establish the distinction between elements and compounds. Guyton studied law at Dijon, practiced there from 1756 to 1762, and was an advocate-general in the provincial parlement of Burgundy from 1762 to 1782. In the latter year he retired to devote himself full time to chemistry, a field he had become interested in during the 1760s. In the 1780s he published several works, including Mthode de nomenclature chimique (1787; Method of Chemical Nomenclature), in which he tried to reform the existing system of naming chemicals. At that time chemicals were hardly ever named according to their constituents but rather according to their origins, their appearance, the name of their discoverer, or other arbitrary qualities. Guyton proposed instead that the simplest chemical substances (i.e., elements) should be given the simplest names, and that the names of compounds should recall their chemical components. His suggestions were widely adopted throughout Europe. Guyton was one of the first to conclude that iron and steel differ solely in their carbon content. He also made improvements in the manufacture of gunpowder, and he was the first to use chlorine and hydrochloric acid gas as disinfectants. He was also one of the earliest balloonists, making two flights in 1784. He helped organize the world's first air forceRevolutionary France's Compagnie d'Arostiers, whose reconnaissance balloonists helped the French forces win several battles in the 1790s.