Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri Mendeleev [In Russian: Dmitriy Ivanovich Mendeleyev] (8 February, 1834-2 February 1907) was a Russian chemist. He was born In Tobolsk, Siberia He is credited as being the primary creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements. Unlike other contributors to the table Mendeleev predicted the properties of elements yet to be discovered.

Mendeleev was the 13th surviving child out of 17, but the exact number differs among sources. As a child, he was fascinated by the glass which was created at the factory his mother owned, and for a time, the young Mendeleev worked there At the age of 13, after the death of his father and the destruction of his mother's factory by fire, Mendeleev attended the Gymnasium In Tobolsk

In 1865 he became Doctor of Science for his dissertation ”0n the Combinations of Water With Alcohol”. Though Mendeleev was widely honored by scientific organizations all over, Europe, including the Copley Medal from the Royal Society of London, he resigned from St. Petersburg UnIverSIfyon August 17,1890.

In 1893, he was appointed Director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. It was in this role that he was directed to formulate new state standards for the production of vodka. His fascination with molecular weights led him to conclude that to be in perfect molecular balance, vodka should be produced in the ratio of one molecule of ethyl alcohol diluted with two molecules of water, giving a dilution by volume of approximately 38% alcohol to 62% water. As a result of his work, in 1894 new standards for vodka were introduced into Russian ; law and all vodka had to be produced at 40% alcohol by volume.

After becoming a teacher, he wrote the definitive two-volume textbook at that time: Principles 0f Chemistry (1868-1870). As he attempted to classify the elements according to their chemical properties, he noticed patterns that led him to postulate his Periodic Table.

Unknown to Mendeleev, several other Scientists had also been working on their own tables of elements One was John Newlands, who published his law of Octaves In 1864. However the lack of ; Spaces for undiscovered elements and the placing of two elements In one box were criticised and his ideas were not accepted. Another was Lothar Meyer, who published a work in 1864, describing 29 elements. Like Newlands, Meyer did not seem to have the idea of using a table to predict new elements. In contrast to Newlands' methodical approach to creating a table, Mendeleev's was almost accidental and emerged gradually and developed his version of periodic table. Mendeleev is given credit for the introduction of the metric system to the Russian Empire.

Mendeleev died in 1907 in St. Petersburg, Russia from influenza The Mendeleev crater on the Moon, as well as element number 101, the radioactive mendelevium, are. named after him.