Lavoisier making water. Historical artwork of the French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743- 1794) conducting his 1783 experiment on water. The two cylinders (grey, right and left) hold oxygen and hydrogen. The static electricity generator at lower right supplies the energy for producing the sparks in the spherical glass reaction vessel (the flask at centre). The oxygen and hydrogen gases are piped into the flask and the spark causes the hydrogen to burn in the oxygen (combustion). The product of the reaction is water, proving water to be a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. Lavoisier is considered the founder of modern chemistry. From Physique Populaire (E. Desbeaux, 1891).