February 8 – Happy Birthday, Bernard Courtois

nPostednon February 8, 2014

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nThisnchemist and businessman was the first person known to have isolatednmorphine and the person who discovered the element iodine.nUnfortunately, Bernard Courtois, born in France on this date in 1777,nearned very little money or renown for his discoveries.

Courtois’sndad had a business making potassium nitrate for gunpowder. Somehow,ndespite all the wars fought in Europe at the time, the businessnlimped along and eventually failed. Apparently the elder Courtoisndied shortly after getting out of debtor’s prison.

nCourtoisntook over the family business, interrupting his chemist job and worknon morphine. At one point there was a shortage of wood ash, fromnwhich potassium nitrate was obtained, so he started getting it fromnseaweed, which was plentiful on the nearby beaches. It was while henwas isolating sodium and potassium from seaweed ash that Courtoisnmade his most important discovery.

Itnwas an accident (as so many discoveries are)!
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nCourtois apparentlynadded too much sulfuric acid to the seaweed ash, and he observed anviolet vapor cloud that condensed on cold objects, forming shiny dark crystals.

nCourtoisnexperimented with the substance and found thatnit combined easily with hydrogen and phosphorous but not so easilynwith oxygen or carbon. He tried to make it explode—aren’t chemistsnalways trying to do that?—and found that ammonia did the trick.

nCourtoisnturned his findings over to two chemists, who announced the discoverynof iodine in 1813. Apparently Courtois was eventuallynacknowledged as the true discoverer and was even awarded 6,000 francsnfor his finding—but, as his obituary later pointed out, he didn’tntake out a certificate of invention and continued to strugglenfinancially until he died pretty much penniless at age 62.

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nWhyndo we iodize table salt?

Iodinendeficiency leads to problems—problems that about two billionnpeople in the world face.
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nAs a matter of fact, iodine deficiency isn“the leading preventable cause of intellectual and developmental disabilities.” In other words, it’s a common problem, but it’s simple to solve the problem:
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nSimply put a tiny amount of iodine in table salt. Cheap andneasy.

nDidnyou know, though, that an opened container of iodized table salt will losenits iodine content in about four weeks? Yikes—my salt container isnway older than that! n

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nAlsonon this date:
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