Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. François Pierre Ami Argand (5 July 1750 14 October 1803) was a Swiss physicist and chemist. He invented the Argand lamp, a great improvement on the traditional oil lamp. Francois-Pierre-Ami Argand was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the ninth of ten children. His father was a watchmaker, who intended for him to enter the clergy. However, he had an aptitude more for science, and became a pupil of the noted botanist and meteorologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure.