January 27 – Happy Birthday, Dmitri Mendeleev

nPostednon January 27, 2016

AsnI did when writing about James Watt, I am going to wish DmitrinMendeleev a happy birthday on the date he actually used: January 27.nBut Mendeleev was born on this date in Russia, in 1834…so this datenis O.S. (Old Style).

nManynencyclopedias report his birthday as the New Style date of Februaryn8. 1834. (Russia didn’t switch to the “New Style” Gregorian calendar until 1918,nabout 11 years after Mendeleev died.)

nMendeleevnwas born in a village in Siberia. His father was a teacher of finenarts, politics, and philosophy – but unfortunately he went blindnand lost his teaching position. The family became shaky, financiallynspeaking, and Mendeleev’s mother restarted her family’s abandonednglass factory. However, more bad luck plagued the family: Mendeleev’snfather died, and the glass factory burned down.

nI’mnnot sure what happened to all of Mendeleev’s siblings – he hadneither 10, 12, 13, or 16 brothers and sisters, depending on whatnsource you consult! – but Mendeleev was the youngest, and Wikipedianreports that his mother crossed the entire country to Moscow and thennSt. Petersburg to seek a university education for her youngest son.nAlthough the family was by then quite poor, Mendeleev was able to get anneducation and became a chemist.

nHisnbiggest contribution to scientific knowledge was his arrangement ofnthe elements in a periodic table – the one we use to this dayn(although of course expanded with newly discovered elements).

nMendeleevnalso used his periodic table to correct the properties of alreadynknown elements and to predict the properties of eight elements thatnhad not yet been discovered!

nPeriodicallynspeaking…

nMendeleevnwas not the first scientist to notice the patterns of the elements’nproperties – properties such as boiling point, color, ability tontransmit (conduct) electricity, and how reactive they are with othernelements. Several scientists had made similar observations in 1864nand 1865. However, their description of the patterns – ornperiodicity – did not gain much notice.

Mendeleev,nnot aware of those scientists’ work, had a dream in which thenelements fell into place in a table. He woke from the dream andnscribbled down the arrangement; he later claimed that he only had tonmake one small correction to that dream-inspired table.

nInn1869, Mendeleev made a formal presentation of his periodic table tonthe Russian Chemical Society. He gained international fame and manynhonors for this work. Although many thought Medeleev should havenreceived a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, there is a crater on the Moonnnamed for this scientist, and the chemical element mendelevium (Md)nis also named for him.