Antoine Lavoisier is the first to suggest…
1789 CE
Antoine Lavoisier is the first to suggest that silica is an oxide of a hitherto unknown metallic chemical element, later isolated and named silicon.
Lavoisier founds modern chemistry with the publication of his revolutionary textbook Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (Elementary Treatise of Chemistry).
The book defines an element as a single substance that cannot be broken down by chemical analysis and from which all chemical compounds are formed, publishing his discovery that fermentation produces carbon dioxide (carbonic gas) and spirit of wine, saying that it is "more appropriately called by the Arabic word alcohol since it is formed from cider or fermented sugar as well as wine", and publishing the first chemical equation "grape must = carbonic acid + alcohol", calling this reaction "one of the most extraordinary in chemistry", noting "In these experiments, we have to assume that there is a true balance or equation between the elements of the compounds with which we start and those obtained at the end of the reaction."
The book contains a list of elements, which includes oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, phosphorus, mercury, zinc, and sulfur, forming the basis for the modern list of elements.
His list, however, also includes light and caloric, which he believes to be material substances but are not elements.
Translated into English in 1790, Traité Élémentaire de Chimie will come to be considered the first modern chemical textbook.