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Dmitri Mendeleev: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Mendeleev claimed to have seen the entire periodic table of elements in a dream, a vision that would revolutionize the understanding of matter. Born on the 8th of February 1834 in the remote village of Verkhnie Aremzyani near Tobolsk, Siberia, he was the youngest of seventeen children, though only fourteen survived infancy. His father, Ivan Mendeleev, was a school principal and teacher of fine arts who went blind and lost his job, forcing his mother, Maria Kornilieva, to restart the family's abandoned glass factory to keep the household afloat. After his father died and the factory burned down, the thirteen-year-old Mendeleev attended the Tobolsk Gymnasium. His mother took him on a grueling journey across Russia to Moscow to enroll him in university, but the institution rejected him. Undeterred, they traveled to Saint Petersburg, where he entered the Main Pedagogical Institute in 1850. He contracted tuberculosis, which sent him to the Crimean Peninsula to recover, but he returned to Saint Petersburg fully restored by 1857. Between 1859 and 1861, he studied capillarity and spectroscopy in Heidelberg, eventually publishing a textbook on organic chemistry that won him the prestigious Demidov Prize of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. By 1865, he had earned his Doctor of Science degree for a dissertation on the combinations of water with alcohol, and by 1871, he had transformed Saint Petersburg into an internationally recognized center for chemistry research.
The Periodic Vision
In 1869, Mendeleev made a formal presentation to the Russian Chemical Society titled The Dependence between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements, which described elements according to both atomic weight and valence. He arranged the known elements in a table that exhibited an apparent periodicity of properties, noting that elements with similar chemical properties either had similar atomic weights or had their atomic weights increasing regularly. Mendeleev boldly predicted the existence of three unknown elements, which he named ekasilicon, ekaaluminium, and ekaboron, using Sanskrit prefixes to honor the ancient Indian grammarians who had discovered two-dimensional patterns in speech sounds. He questioned the accepted atomic weights of known elements, such as uranium, which he corrected from a valence of 3 and atomic weight of 120 to a valence of 6 and atomic weight of 240. He also placed tellurium and iodine in the correct order despite tellurium having a higher atomic weight, correctly predicting that the accepted weights were at fault. When gallium was discovered in 1875 and germanium in 1886, they fit perfectly into the two missing spaces in his table, proving his predictions accurate. Mendeleev also predicted the existence of the actinides, a row of elements heavier than the lanthanides, and he was proven correct when these elements were eventually discovered. His original draft, known as the Tentative System of Elements, was found years later and published, cementing his legacy as the Father of the Periodic Table.
Common questions
When was Dmitri Mendeleev born and where was he born?
Dmitri Mendeleev was born on the 8th of February 1834 in the remote village of Verkhnie Aremzyani near Tobolsk, Siberia. He was the youngest of seventeen children, though only fourteen survived infancy.
What did Dmitri Mendeleev predict about unknown elements in 1869?
Dmitri Mendeleev predicted the existence of three unknown elements named ekasilicon, ekaaluminium, and ekaboron using Sanskrit prefixes. He also predicted the existence of the actinides, a row of elements heavier than the lanthanides, which were later discovered to fit perfectly into his table.
Why was Dmitri Mendeleev never awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?
Dmitri Mendeleev was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the last three years of his life, 1905, 1906, and 1907, but he was never awarded the prize due to the opposition of Svante Arrhenius. The Nobel Committee for Chemistry recommended to the Swedish Academy to award the prize to Henri Moissan instead, with Arrhenius opposing Mendeleev's candidacy.
Did Dmitri Mendeleev set the 40% standard strength of vodka?
Dmitri Mendeleev did not set the 40% standard strength of vodka because the standard was already introduced by the Russian government in 1843 when he was nine years old. His 1865 doctoral dissertation discussed medical-strength alcohol concentrations over 70%, and he never wrote anything about vodka.
When did Dmitri Mendeleev die and what were his last words?
Dmitri Mendeleev died on the 2nd of February 1907 in Saint Petersburg from influenza at the age of 72. His last words to his physician were, Doctor, you have science, I have faith, which is possibly a Jules Verne quote.
Mendeleev's personal life was marked by scandal and tragedy. In 1876, he became obsessed with Anna Ivanovna Popova, and in 1881, he proposed to her, threatening suicide if she refused. His divorce from his first wife, Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva, was finalized one month after he married Popova on the 2nd of April 1882. Even after the divorce, Mendeleev was technically a bigamist, as 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. He had children from both marriages: Ivan and twins from his first marriage, and Lyubov, Vladimir, and Olga from his second. His daughter Lyubov later became the wife of the famous Russian poet Alexander Blok. In 1890, he resigned from Saint Petersburg University following a dispute with officials at the Ministry of Education over the treatment of university students. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1892 and appointed director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, a post he held until his death. Mendeleev was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the last three years of his life, 1905, 1906, and 1907, but he was never awarded the prize due to the opposition of Svante Arrhenius, who held a grudge against Mendeleev for his critique of Arrhenius's dissociation theory.
Beyond the Elements
Mendeleev's contributions extended far beyond chemistry, encompassing hydrodynamics, meteorology, geology, and chemical technology. He was one of the founders of the Russian Chemical Society in 1868 and worked on the theory and practice of protectionist trade and agriculture. He investigated the composition of petroleum, helping to found the first oil refinery in Russia and recognizing the importance of petroleum as a feedstock for petrochemicals. He famously remarked that burning petroleum as a fuel would be akin to firing up a kitchen stove with bank notes. Mendeleev also studied the origins of petroleum, concluding that hydrocarbons are abiogenic and form deep within the earth. He invented pyrocollodion, a kind of smokeless powder based on nitrocellulose, which was commissioned by the Russian Navy but never adopted. In 1892, he organized its manufacture. He introduced the metric system to the Russian Empire and set up an inspection system to standardize fundamental prototypes and measurement procedures. Mendeleev also debated against the scientific claims of spiritualism, arguing that metaphysical idealism was no more than ignorant superstition. He was elected an honorary member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1889 and helped convince the Ministry of Finance to impose temporary tariffs in 1891 to foster Russian infant industries.
The Vodka Myth
A popular Russian story credits Mendeleev with setting the 40% standard strength of vodka, with Russian Standard vodka advertising that he received a decree to set the Imperial quality standard for Russian vodka in 1894. In reality, the 40% standard was already introduced by the Russian government in 1843, when Mendeleev was nine years old. It is true that Mendeleev became head of the Archive of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg in 1892 and evolved it into a government bureau the following year, but that institution was charged with standardizing Russian trade weights and measuring instruments, not setting any production quality standards. His 1865 doctoral dissertation, A Discourse on the combination of alcohol and water, only discussed medical-strength alcohol concentrations over 70%, and he never wrote anything about vodka. Despite the myth, Mendeleev's work on the density of alcohol and water solutions was groundbreaking, and he used his findings to improve the accuracy of measurements in the Russian Empire. The myth persists as a testament to his enduring popularity and the cultural significance of vodka in Russia, but it remains a fabrication that has no basis in his actual scientific contributions.
The Final Years
Mendeleev died on the 2nd of February 1907 in Saint Petersburg from influenza at the age of 72. His last words to his physician were, Doctor, you have science, I have faith, which is possibly a Jules Verne quote. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the last three years of his life, but the Nobel Committee for Chemistry recommended to the Swedish Academy to award the prize to Henri Moissan instead, with Arrhenius opposing Mendeleev's candidacy. Mendeleev was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1905 and received three nominations, but the majority of the academy chose Moissan by a margin of one vote. He was also elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society. Mendeleev's legacy was commemorated in numerous ways, including the naming of the synthetic element mendelevium, the mineral mendeleevite-Ce, and the lunar impact crater Mendeleev. The Russian Academy of Sciences has awarded a Mendeleev Golden Medal since 1965, and on the 8th of February 2016, his 182nd birthday was celebrated with a Google doodle. His name was given to the D. I. Mendeleev Institute for Metrology, and a monument to him stands next to it, consisting of his sitting statue and a depiction of his periodic table on the wall of the establishment. In Moscow, the D. Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology of Russia bears his name, and a memorial museum apartment with his archives is located in the Twelve Collegia building, now the center of Saint Petersburg State University.