Last Sorcerers: Path From Alchemy to the Periodic Table by Richard Morris

Author:Richard Morris [Morris, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science, History
ISBN: 9780309095075
Amazon: 0309095077
Publisher: Joseph Henry Press
Published: 2005-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

Mendeleev was not alone in making this discovery. In Germany Lothar Meyer discovered the periodic law independently. However, Mendeleev published first and thus had priority. Furthermore, Meyer made no attempt to predict the properties of unknown elements as Mendeleev did. Thus Mendeleev is generally given sole credit for the discovery.

A Prediction Confirmed

In 1875 the French chemist Emil Lecoq de Boisbaudron discovered Mendeleev’s eka-aluminum and named it gallium after the ancient name for France (the right to name an element is the discoverer’s even if its existence has already been predicted). When Mendeleev heard of the discovery, he naturally announced that his prediction was confirmed. Lecoq disagreed. Mendeleev had predicted an element with a density of 5.94 (that is, 5.94 times heavier than water) while his element had a density of 4.7. However, when a second

determination of the density was made, it was discovered that Lecoq’s first result was in error. The actual density of gallium turned out to be 5.91, very close to Mendeleev’s prediction.

The discovery of gallium was followed by the discovery of scandium (Mendeleev’s eka-boron) in 1879 and of germanium (eka-sili-con) in 1886. The new elements had the approximate atomic weights and properties that Mendeleev had predicted. The scientific world was astonished. It is probably safe to say that before Mendeleev’s predictions were confirmed, no chemist would have believed that the properties of unknown elements could be predicted with such accuracy.

Separation

At about the same time that Mendeleev’s predictions began to be confirmed, his relationship with his wife, Feozva, reached a low point. Because both found the situation unbearable, they decided to separate. It was agreed that Feozva would live on the couple’s country estate during the academic year when Mendeleev was in St. Petersburg and that she would live in St. Petersburg when he lived on the estate during the summers. The couple’s two children would stay with their mother.

However happy Mendeleev might have been to separate from his wife, he undoubtedly missed his son and daughter. However, it is unlikely that he spent a great deal of time thinking about the matter. He kept as busy as always, and in 1876 the Russian government sent him to study oil-drilling practices in Pennsylvania. The first commercial oil well had been drilled there in 1859, and it was hoped that Mendeleev could use what he learned to make recommendations about the development of Russian oil fields.

While he was in Pennsylvania, Mendeleev visited refineries, interviewed people who worked in the local oil industry, and studied the rock formations in regions where oil was found. Thus in Russia, Mendeleev is remembered not only as a chemist, but also as the father of the Russian oil industry, and justifiably so, because he contributed

more than anyone else to the development of Russian oil production. On his return to Russia he invented a new method of refining and tested it under factory conditions. He went to southern Russia to study the oil-bearing land there and wrote a book titled The Petroleum Industry in Pennsylvania and the Caucasus.

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