CHAPTAL, Jean Antoine Claude, count of Chanteloup, was born at Nosaret, in France, in the year 1756. He early devoted himself to the study of the sciences and medicine, and soon distinguished himself as a physician. At the assault upon the citadel of Montpellier in 1791, he rendered himself conspicuous as a revolutionist. His fame as a chemist had become so great, that he was called to Paris in 1793 to assist in the manufacture of gunpowder, a commodity much wanted at that troublous period. By his chemical knowledge and activity in the extensive factory at Grenoble, he was enabled to supply the demand, by the production of 3500 pounds per clay. In the year following he returned to Montpellier, and received a place in the administration of the department of the Hérault, [7:6:321] with the professorship of chemistry, which had been founded there for him. He was made a member of the Institute in 1798, and having favoured the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, he was in 1799 appointed a counsellor of state by the first consul, and in the year following minister of the interior, in which capacity he greatly encouraged the arts and sciences, and established a chemical manufactory in the vicinity of Paris. In 1804 he fell into disgrace; the reason assigned for this is, that he refused to state in one of his official reports that beet-root sugar was better than that prepared from the sugar-cane. In 1805, however, the emperor bestowed on him the grand cross of the legion of honour, and a seat in the conservative senate. On Napoleon’s· return from Elba he was appointed director général of commerce and manufactures, and a minister of state. After the restoration of the king he retired to private life, and entered into negotiations with the Princess of Orleans relative to Chanteloup, which had formerly belonged to her. In March 1816 the king nominated him a member of the Academy of Sciences. The various vicissitudes of fortune which he underwent never diverted his attention from the arts and sciences, which he continued to promote and encourage till his death, which took place at Paris in August 1832.

Chaptal was director of two chemical manufactories, at Montpellier and Neuilly. He discovered the application of old wool instead of oil in the preparation of soap, and the mode of dying cotton with Turkish red. He invented several kinds of cement and artificial puzzolanas, by means of native calcined ochre, as also new varnishes for earthenware, without the use of lead ores or plumbago; and he extended the application of chemical agents in bleaching. Chaptal made no great or brilliant discoveries in chemistry like Black or Davy, but he was eminently distinguished as a practical chemist; and his new applications of known truths have greatly increased the obligations which the arts lie under to science. His works are numerous, and of high authority. Elémens de Chimie, 3 vols. 8vo, 1790; Traite sur le Saltpetre, 8vo, 1796; Essai sur le Perfectionnement des Arts Chimiques en Prance, 8vo, 1800; Art défaire, de gouverner, et de perfectionner, les Vins, 1 vol. 8vo, 1801; Traite Théorique et Pratique sur la Culture de la Vigne, avec l’art de faire le Vin, les Eaux de Vie, Esprit de Vins et Vinaigres, 2 vols. 8vo, 1801; Essai sur le Plan-chiment, 1801; Chimie appliquée aux Arts, 4 vols. 8vo, 1807; Art de la Teinture du Coton en rouge, 8vo, 1807; Art du Teinturier et du Degraisseur, 8vo, 1800; De l’ Industrie Française, 2 vols. 8vo, 1819; Mémoire sur le Sucre de Betteraves, 8vo; Chimie appliquée à I' Agriculture, 2 vols. 8vo, 1823.