Ami Argand

Francois-Pierre-Amedee Argand, known as Ami Argand, was a physicist and chemist from Geneva who lived from 5 July 1750 until October 1803 and invented the Argand lamp, a major improvement on the traditional oil lamp. He was born in Geneva, the ninth of ten children of a watchmaker, and although his father meant him for the clergy he turned to science and studied under the botanist and meteorologist Horace-Benedict de Saussure. After publishing meteorological papers in Paris he taught chemistry and, with his brother, built a large distillery. In 1780 he began improving the oil lamp by giving it a cylindrical wick that air could flow through and around, with a cylindrical chimney to draw the air and a mechanism to raise and lower the wick. The resulting light was five to ten times brighter than a candle and burned cleanly. Making it practical took a whole system of parts, from a wick woven by a lacemaker to suitable glass, purified whale oil and leak free solder. Argand worked in England with William Parker and Matthew Boulton, received a patent in 1784 and had advice from James Watt, but Antoine Quinquet, who had seen an early prototype, began making lamps of his own and a long patent dispute followed, and the invention was not in the end profitable for him. He died in Geneva at the age of 53 after suffering from malaria for twenty years.