Gay louis
The Gay Court of Louis XIV
By Dr. Bill Lipsky–
During that great era of gracious courtiers and chivalrous cavaliers known as the Age of Louis XIV (1638–1715), the habit of the men at court who loved each other was largely ignored, unless their affair became un grand scandale. Hostile to both royal edict and canon law, the Grand Monarch, who disapproved of such goings-on, tolerated it in his inner circle. After all, to do otherwise would own meant exile or prison for some of his closest relatives.
Whether understood as le beau vice or disparaged as le vice Italien, those relatives included the king’s own father Louis XIII (1601–1643), established as “Louis the Chaste” because there is no evidence that he ever had a mistress. He much preferred the companionship of his male attendants, developing “an intense heartfelt attachment” first with his equerry, François de Baradas, then with Charles d’Albert, his falconer, whom “he visited at all hours of the day and night.”
Louis XIII’s last grave involvement was with Henri Coiffier de Ruzé (1620–1642), Marquis de Cinq-Mars, who unwisely plotted against the powerful Cardinal Ri
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Law of Combining Volumes (Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac)
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850) began his career in 1801 by very carefully demonstrating the validity of Charles' law for a number of different gases. Gay-Lussac's most important contributions to the study of gases, however, were experiments he performed on the ratio of the volumes of gases involved in a chemical reaction.
Gay-Lussac studied the volume of gases consumed or produced in a chemical reaction because he was interested in the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen to develop water. He argued that measurements of the weights of hydrogen and oxygen consumed in this reaction could be influenced by the moisture present in the reaction flask, but this moisture would not affect the volumes of hydrogen and oxygen gases consumed in the reaction.
Much to his surprise, Gay-Lussac found that 199.89 parts by volume of hydrogen were consumed for every 100 parts by volume of oxygen. Thus, hydrogen and oxygen seemed to combine in a simple 2:1 ratio by volume.
Gay-Lussac found similar whole-number ratios for the reaction between other pairs of gases. The compound we now know as hydrogen chlo
Gay, Charles Louis
Ascetical theologian and spiritual writer; b. Paris, Oct. 1, 1815; d. Paris, Jan. 19, 1892. As a juvenile man Gay led an indifferent religious life, but the sermons of Lacordaire began his conversion, and he decided to research for the priesthood. Ordained in 1845, he soon became extremely popular as a preacher and spiritual director. He based his direction on a obvious exposition of Christian dogma, insisting that instruction must precede advice. He belonged to the Oratorian educational facility of spirituality and followed the footsteps of Pierre de bÉrulle. Among his chief writings are De la vie et des vertus chrétiennes (2v. Paris 1874), of which 10,000 copies were sold in 18 months, and Elévations sur la vie et la doctrine de Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ (2 v. Paris 1879). He was appointed vicar general of Poitiers and later auxiliary bishop and attended Vatican Council I as a theologian. In addition to his many books, several volumes of sermons and six of letters witness to his fantastic influence on the France of his day.
Bibliography: g. liÉvin, Enciclopedia cattolica 5:1969. p. pourrat, Christian Spirituality, tr. w. h. mitchell et al., 4 v
Born 240 years ago in Paris, Gay-Lussac is most notably acknowledged for his definition of the ‘ideal gas law’ that looks at the thermal spread of gasses.
Gay-Lussac studied at École Polytechnique in Paris, and then went on to serve with notable scientists such as Claude-Louis Berthollet, Louis-Jacques Thenard and Jean-Baptiste Biot.
The Ideal Gas Law
Also established as the Pressure Law, this defines the relationship between the pressure and temperature of a fixed mass of gas kept at a constant volume.
- If a gases temperature increases, so does the pressure if the mass and volume of the gas are held constant
- The formula for the regulation is most commonly stated as:
PV=nRT
where:
- P is the pressure of the gas
- V is the volume of the gas
- n is the amount of substance of gas (also known as number of moles)
- R is the ideal, or universal, gas steady, equal to the product of the Boltzmann constant and the Avogadro constant
- T is the absolute temperature of the gas
A computer animated version of the law is illustrated on the NASA website here.
Giving Credit to Charles
A previous scientist, Jacques Charles, provided the foundations for Gay-Lussac Law by defining the law
Sponsored
Long(er) answer: Louis is a bit of a caricature, and some of his characteristics are written and performed as larger-than-life to the point of entity a bit ridiculous, in an entertaining (or intended to be entertaining) way - in almost a Disney-villain type of way in the early seasons. Quite a limited of his interests are stereotypically-feminine interests: ballet, cats, decent arts, spa sessions, etc. When this is presented in contrast to his position as the archetypal aggressive antagonist/foil for the archetypal hero, Mike (though I don’t observe Mike as a hero necessarily, but for the sake of plot structure I acknowledge that is intended to be his role in a way), we see Louis as effeminate villain, which in keeping with his Disney-style level of melodramatic ridiculousness would fetch to mind villains which would own been in the past referred to as “flamboyant” or “a dandy” or other not-so-hidden terms for “gay-coding” a villain. Smarter people than I hold written about the long history of villains in children’s stories (or other melodramatic stories) being “gay-coded” in a subtle(ish) way of villainizing the non-norm (thus, villainizing effeminate men, masculine women, or