Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev entered the world in 1834 within the village of Verkhnie Aremzyani near Tobolsk. His father Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev worked as a school principal and teacher before losing his sight and his job. The family faced severe financial hardship after his mother Maria Dmitrievna restarted their abandoned glass factory to survive. He was the youngest of seventeen siblings, though only fourteen survived baptism according to records from his brother Pavel. At age thirteen he attended the Gymnasium in Tobolsk following the death of his father and the destruction of his mother's factory by fire. In 1849 his mother took him across Russia to Moscow seeking enrollment at Moscow University but they were rejected. They continued to Saint Petersburg where he entered the Main Pedagogical Institute in 1850. After graduation he contracted tuberculosis and moved to the Crimean Peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea in 1855. While there he became a science master of the 1st Simferopol Gymnasium. He returned to Saint Petersburg with fully restored health in 1857.
In 1869 Dmitri Mendeleev made a formal presentation to the Russian Chemical Society titled The Dependence between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements. This presentation stated that elements arranged by atomic weight exhibit an apparent periodicity of properties. He claimed to have envisioned the complete arrangement of the elements in a dream while preparing his textbook Principles of Chemistry. The original draft made by Mendeleev would be found years later and published under the name Tentative System of Elements. On the 6th of March 1869 he presented this table which described elements according to both atomic weight and valence. He predicted several new elements to complete the table including what he called ekasilicon ekaaluminium and ekaboron. These names used Sanskrit prefixes meaning one two and three respectively. Gallium and germanium were found in 1875 and 1886 fitting perfectly into the two missing spaces. Prior to his work uranium was supposed to have valence 3 and atomic weight about 120. Mendeleev realized these values did not fit in his periodic table and doubled both to valence 6 and atomic weight 240.
In 1876 Mendeleev became obsessed with Anna Ivanovna Popova and began courting her. In 1881 he proposed to her and threatened suicide if she refused. His divorce from Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva was finalized one month after he had married Popova on the 2nd of April in early 1882. Even after the divorce Mendeleev was technically a bigamist because the Russian Orthodox Church required at least seven years before lawful remarriage. This controversy contributed to his failure to be admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences despite his international fame by that time. He resigned from Saint Petersburg University on the 17th of August 1890 following a dispute with officials at the Ministry of Education over the treatment of university students. In 1893 he was appointed director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures a post which he occupied until his death. He set up an inspection system and introduced the metric system to Russia. The institution was charged with standardizing Russian trade weights and measuring instruments rather than setting production quality standards for vodka.
Mendeleev was nominated for Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the last three years of his life 1905 1906 and 1907 in nine nominations. In 1905 he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and received three nominations. The following year he received four nominations and the Nobel Committee for Chemistry recommended to the Swedish Academy to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1906 to Mendeleev for his discovery of the periodic system. Unexpectedly at the full meeting of the academy a dissenting member of the Nobel Committee Peter Klason proposed the candidacy of Henri Moissan whom he favored. Svante Arrhenius although not a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry had a great deal of influence in the academy and also pressed for the rejection of Mendeleev arguing that the periodic system was too old to acknowledge its discovery in 1906. After heated arguments the majority of the academy chose Moissan by a margin of one vote. The two nominations of Mendeleev in 1907 were again frustrated by the absolute opposition of Arrhenius. In 1907 Mendeleev died at the age of 72 in Saint Petersburg from influenza.
Mendeleev investigated the composition of petroleum and helped to found the first oil refinery in Russia. He recognized the importance of petroleum as a feedstock for petrochemicals. He is credited with a remark that burning petroleum as a fuel would be akin to firing up a kitchen stove with bank notes. Beginning in the 1870s he published widely beyond chemistry looking at aspects of Russian industry and technical issues in agricultural productivity. He explored demographic issues sponsored studies of the Arctic Sea tried to measure the efficacy of chemical fertilizers and promoted the merchant navy. Although not well grounded in economics he observed industry throughout his European travels and in 1891 he helped convince the Ministry of Finance to impose temporary tariffs with the aim of fostering Russian infant industries. He studied the origins of petroleum concluding that hydrocarbons are abiogenic and form deep within the earth. His work on protectionist trade and agriculture shaped much of late imperial economic policy.
A very popular Russian story credits Mendeleev with setting the 40% standard strength of vodka. In fact the 40% standard was already introduced by the Russian government in 1843 when Mendeleev was nine years old. It is true that Mendeleev in 1892 became head of the Archive of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg but that institution was charged with standardising Russian trade weights and measuring instruments not setting any production quality standards. A number of places and objects are associated with the name and achievements of the scientist. In Saint Petersburg his name was given to D I Mendeleev Institute for Metrology. Next to it there is a monument to him that consists of his sitting statue and a depiction of his periodic table on the wall of the establishment. Mendelevium which is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Md and the atomic number 101 was named after Mendeleev. The mineral mendeleevite Ce was named in Mendeleev's honor in 2010. A large lunar impact crater Mendeleev located on the far side of the Moon also bears the name of the scientist. On the 8th of February 2016 Mendeleev's 182nd birthday was celebrated with a Google doodle.
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Common questions
When and where was Dmitri Mendeleev born?
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev entered the world in 1834 within the village of Verkhnie Aremzyani near Tobolsk. He was the youngest of seventeen siblings, though only fourteen survived baptism according to records from his brother Pavel.
What did Dmitri Mendeleev present on the 6th of March 1869?
On the 6th of March 1869 he presented a table which described elements according to both atomic weight and valence. This presentation stated that elements arranged by atomic weight exhibit an apparent periodicity of properties.
Why did Dmitri Mendeleev fail to be admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences?
This controversy contributed to his failure to be admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences despite his international fame by that time. The issue arose because his divorce from Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva was finalized one month after he had married Popova on the 2nd of April in early 1882 while the Russian Orthodox Church required at least seven years before lawful remarriage.
Who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1906 instead of Dmitri Mendeleev?
The majority of the academy chose Henri Moissan by a margin of one vote over Dmitri Mendeleev. Svante Arrhenius pressed for the rejection of Mendeleev arguing that the periodic system was too old to acknowledge its discovery in 1906.
Did Dmitri Mendeleev set the 40% standard strength of vodka?
In fact the 40% standard was already introduced by the Russian government in 1843 when Mendeleev was nine years old. It is true that Mendeleev in 1892 became head of the Archive of Weights and Measures but that institution was charged with standardising Russian trade weights and measuring instruments not setting any production quality standards.