Studies in Geneva, where Horace Bénédict de Saussure gives him the taste of sciences. Course of chemistry of Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier and Antoine François Fourcroy in Paris. In 1780, A. installs close to Montpellier of the distillings based on a method of its invention. He collaborates in Lyon into 1783 with the aerostatic experiments of the Montgolfier brothers.

Having invented an oil lamp with double draft and wick in the shape of hollow roll, it leaves the same year for London where it founds a manufacture. Success causes many imitations and counterfeits, of which that of Parisian pharmacist Quinquet.

In 1787, Argand founds a new manufacture with Versoix, to which the abolition of the licenses carries a heavy blow. He also invented with Joseph Montgolfier the hydraulic ram (1792) and improved the spinning machines and to card cotton.

The king of France Louis XVI offered 100' 000 francs to him to build a gigantic roasting plant with Mèze, in Languedoc. Finished for the grape harvest of 1789, this distilling was during thirty years most important of France.

Bibliography

B. Frommel and Al, Friendly Argand with Versoix, 1999