DMITRI
MENDELEEV (LIVED 1834 – 1907)
INTRODUCTION
Dmitri Mendeleev was passionate
about chemistry. His deepest wish is to
find a better way of organizing the subject.
Mendeleev’s wish led to his
discovery of the periodic law and his creation of the periodic table. One of the most iconic symbol ever seen in
science almost everyone recognizes it instantly. Science has few other creations as well known
as the periodic table using his periodic table.
Mendeleev predicted his existence and properties of new chemical
elements when these elements were discovered, his place in the history of
science was assured.
EARLY
LIFE AND EDUCATION
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born
February 8, 1834 in Verchnie Armzyani, in the Russian province by Siberia. His family was unusually large. He may have had as many as 16 brothers and
sisters, although the exact numbers is uncertain.
When his father was a teacher who
had graduated at Saint Petersburg’s main pedagogic institute a teacher training
institution.
When h is father went bling, his
mother reopened a glass factory which had originally been started by his father
and then closed. His father died when
Mendeleev was just 13 and the glass factory burned down when he was 15.
Aged 16, he moved to Saint
Petersburg, which as the Russia’s capital city.
He won a place at his father’s old college in part because the head of
the college had known his father. There,
Mendeleev trained to be a teacher.
In 1855, aged 21 he got a job
teaching science in Sismeropol, Crimea, but soon returned to St.
Petersburg. There he studied for a
master’s degree in chemistry at the University at St. Petersburg. He was awarded his degree in 1856.
THE
PERIODIC TABLE
Mendeleev was certain that better
more fun, damental principles could be found, this was his mind set when in
1869. He began writing a second volume
of his book. The principle of chemistry
at the heart of chemistry were its elements what wondered Mendeleev could they
reveal to him if he could find someway of organizing them logically. He wrote the names of the 65 known elements
on cards, much like playing card one element on each card. He then wrote the fundamental properties of
every element on its own card including atomic weight. He saw that atomic weight was important in
some way. The behavior of elements
seemed to repeat as their atomic weights increased but he could not see the
pattern.
Convinced that he was a close to
discovering something significant, Mendeleev moved the cards about four hour
after hour until finally he fell asleep at his desk.
When he awake, he found that this
subconscious mind had done his work for him.
He now knew the pattern the elements followed, he later wrote.
Why
was Mendeleev’s periodic table successful?
As with many discoveries in
science, there is a time when a concept becomes ripe for discovery and this was
the case with the periodic table in 1869.
Later Meyer, for example, had
proposed a rough periodic table in 1864 and by 1868 had devised one that was
very similar to Mendeleev’s but he did not publish it until 1870.
John Newlands published a periodic
table in 1865. Newlands wrote his own
law of periodic behavior. Newlands also
predicted the existence of a new element (Germanium) based on a gap in his
table. Unfortunately for Newlands, his
work was largely ingnored.
The reason Mendeleev became the
leader as the pack was probably because he not only showed how the elements
could be organized, but he used his periodic table to propose that some of the
elements, whose behaviors did not agree with his predictions, must have had
their atomic weights measured incorrectly.
Predict the existence of eight new
elements Mendeleev even predicted the properties these elements would
have. It turned out that chemists had
measured some atomic weights incorrectly.
Mendeleev was right now scientists everywhere sat up and paid attention
to his periodic table as new elements that he had predicted were discovered. Mendeleev’s fane and scientific reputation
were enhanced further. In 1905, the
British Royal Society gave him its highest honor, the coopleymedal and in the
same year he was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Element
101 is named Mendeleevicem in his honor.
TECHNICAL
ACTIVITIES
Mendeleev also showed a great
interest in technology. In 1863 he was
immersed in the problems as the Baku Petroleum industry. He suggested a pipeline should be build to
carry the oil from Baku to the Black Sea.
He noted that the system of leasing oil-rich government owned lands for
a 4-year period tended to prevent large scale investment in needed equipment to
modernize operations and he taught the government tax on petroleum
products. In 1876, Mendeleev visited the
Pennsylvania oil field, brought back some technical ideas and presented an
unflattering views of America in his
book. The oil industry in the North
American sate of Pennsylvania and the Caucasus.
He developed a theory that petroleum originated from the action of water
on metallic carbides inside the earth.
PYROCOLLODION
Is a smokeless power invented by
Dmitri Mendeleev. Mendeleev discovered
it in 1892 and proposed to use it to replace gun power in the Russian
Navy. This after was rejected because of
cost and efficiency. Pyrocollodion is
known to be spontaneously combustible and explosive, when ignited. It will burnt/explode quickly and with
excessive heat output. If ignited a
tight contained space. It will leave
little to no remains such unburned power, particular kinds of flame scarring or
smoke of any kind. Pyrocollodion is a
variant of nitro cellulose. The natural
ingredients found in Pyrocolloidon can now be used in the production of cocaine
and cigarettes.
PYCNOMETER
A gas pycnometer is a laboratory
device used for measuring the density or more accurately the volume of solids,
be they regularly shaped, porous, or non-porous monolithic, powdered, granular
or in some way comminuted, employing some method of gas displacement and the volume
pressure relationship known as Boyle’s law.
A gas pycnometer is also sometimes referred to as a Helium pyconometer.
CONCLUSION
Born in Siberia, the last by at
least 14 children. Dmitri Mendeleev
revolutionized our understanding as the properties of atoms and created a table
that probably adorns every chemistry classroom in the world. After his father went blind and could no
longer support of the family, Mendeleev’s mother started a glass factory to
help make ends meet. But just as
Mendeleev was finish high school, his father died and the glass factory burned
down with most of her other children now out on their own. His mother took her son to St. Petersburg,
working tastelessly and successfully to get him into college. In the late 1860’s, Mendeleev began working
on his great achievement, periodic table of elements.
REFERENCES
·
Mendeleev’s collection – St. Petersburg
·
Masanori Kaji Mendeleev’s discovery of
the periodic law. The origin and the
reception.
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