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Alexandre Brongniart Facts & Worksheets

Alexandre Brongniart was a French mineralogist, chemist, and zoologist who studied the geology of the Paris Basin in France with Georges Cuvier.

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Alexandre Brongniart was a French mineralogist, chemist, and zoologist who studied the geology of the Paris Basin in France with Georges Cuvier. He was also the Sevres Porcelain Factory director for 47 years and made the factory well-known worldwide. Brongniart was a professor in ceramic chemistry and mineralogy.

See the fact file below for more information on the Alexandre Brongniart or alternatively, you can download our 25-page Alexandre Brongniart worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

BIOGRAPHY AND CAREER

  • Alexandre Brongniart was born on February 5, 1770, in Paris, France. He was the son of Alexandre-Theodore Brongniart, a distinguished Parisian architect, and Anne-Louise Degremont. Brongniart studied at the “École des Mines and later at the École de Médecine”.
  • Later on, Brongniart became an assistant to his uncle Antoine-Louis Brongniart, who was a professor of chemistry at Jardin des Plantes. This was the mark of the beginning of Brongniart’s interest in the field of chemistry.
  • Brongniart gained more knowledge and experience while serving as an assistant pharmacist for the French forces in the Pyrenees. Later on, in 1794, Brongniart returned to Paris and worked as a mining engineer.

BIOGRAPHY

  • After three years, Brongniart worked as a professor in Natural History at the École Centrale des Quatre-Nations. He also traveled through Europe, particularly in England, to learn more about England’s ceramic techniques. Additionally, Brongniart traveled in Western Europe to publish his own geological papers about the areas of Italy and Sweden.
  • In 1800, Brongniart became the director of the Sevres Porcelain Factory at thirty years old. He was the director up until he died on October 7, 1847. While being the director, he also managed to have a family with Cecile, the daughter of Charles-Etienne Coquebert de Montbret, who was a statesman and scientist. They had a son, Adolphe-Theodor, who also became a paleobotanist and a botanist.
  • Under his direction, the porcelain factory flourished and became well-known all over the world. During their time, soft-paste porcelain was rapidly abandoned, and the improvement of the formula for hard-paste porcelain started. Several new shapes, patterns, and colors were developed, and more efficient kilns were introduced.
  • Five years later, Brongniart became a member of the Academie des Sciences. He was also appointed as the chief mining engineer in 1818. Four years later, he became the professor of mineralogy at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle.

BRONGNIART CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE

  • While Brongniart left a legacy with his contributions to ceramic chemistry, his other scientific interest publications were also significant.
  • Brongniart’s work “Essai d’une classification Naturelle des reptiles” was a publication in zoology and was published in the year 1800. His work discussed and emphasized comparative anatomy’s importance.
  • Brongniart divided the class Reptilia into four more groups. This includes Chelonia, Ophidia, Sauria, and Batrachia, which was now considered a separate class, Amphibia.
  • From Brongniart’s observations on reptiles, he noticed that the Batrachians were a unique group compared to the other three groups. The very distinct characteristic is in the reproductive organs of the group.
  • With Brongniart’s findings, Pierre Latreille separated the batrachians into their own separate class, the amphibians.
  • Another contribution of Brongniart is his work with Georges Cuvier in 1804. They both worked on the reconstructions of extinct mammals in the Paris Basin. These fossils belonged to several distinct periods, and they needed to identify a reliable clue to the relativity of the fossils’ ages.
  • Brongniart and Cuvier worked in collaboration to survey the area, and this helped them introduce the concept of fossil dating. They did so by carefully examining the different layers of each sedimentary rock layer, or stratum, for fossils.
  • This showed that the Paris Basin experienced several geological changes over time. With these, Brongniart and Cuvier published “Essai sur la géographie mineralogiquc des environs de Paris” in June 1808.
  • The paper included a large, colored, geological map and several horizontal sections in 1811. It discussed the Nine ‘Formations’ (the distinctive rock units) that were classified in the initial version of the paper.
  • Brongniart published “Traité élémentaire de mineralogy” in 1807. This was a textbook about mineralogy for his students who were studying the subject. In this paper, Brongniart was able to classify the differences between basalt and clay despite having difficulties in distinguishing fine-grained rocks from minerals.
  • Brongniart also emphasized the importance of studying the modes of occurrence of minerals and their properties in the paper.
  • In 1829, Brongniart published his last major geological work, the “Tableau des terrains qui composent l’écorce du globe”. This work was about the interpretation and ordered classification of rocks that culminated throughout his life’s work.
  • This work of Brongniart had a disappointing reception, but it influenced further developments in geology. Brongniart tried to distinguish time units from rock units. However, this led him to propose a largely novel nomenclature that was hard to remember. Thus, it failed to be accepted by the general public.
  • Brongniart’s strati-graphical works served as a good principal model to the pattern for other geological works in the mid-nineteenth century.

Alexandre Brongniart Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Alexandre Brongniart across 25 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Alexandre Brongniart worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Alexandre Brongniart who was a French mineralogist, chemist, and zoologist who studied the geology of the Paris Basin in France with Georges Cuvier. He was also the Sevres Porcelain Factory director for 47 years and made the factory well-known worldwide. Brongniart was a professor in ceramic chemistry and mineralogy.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Alexandre Brongniart Facts
  • Brongniart’s Profile
  • Timeline of the Scientist
  • Missing Words of Brongniart
  • The Class Reptilia
  • The Questions of Brongniart
  • Crosswords of the Scientist
  • Basalt VS Clay
  • The Jumbled Works
  • Class Reptilia Characteristics
  • The Scientist

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