1845 ca, FRANCE : The french chemist and physicist Louis-Joseph GAY-LUSSAC (1778 - 1850). He is known mostly for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (with Alexander von Humboldt), for two laws related to gases, and for his work on alcohol-water mixtures, which led to the degrees Gay-Lussac used to measure alcoholic beverages in many countries.