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BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Mendeleev Dmitry Ivanovich. Biography of a scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
In the history of the development of science, many major discoveries are known. But few of them can be compared with what Mendeleev did - one of the greatest chemists in the world. Although many years have passed since the discovery of his law, no one can say when the entire content of the famous "Mendeleev's table" will be fully understood. Dmitry Mendeleev was born on January 27 (February 8), 1834 in Tobolsk in the family of the director of the gymnasium and trustee of public schools in the Tobolsk province, Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev and Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, nee Kornilieva. He was raised by his mother, since the father of the future chemist went blind shortly after the birth of his son. In the autumn of 1841, Mitya entered the Tobolsk gymnasium. He was admitted to the first class on the condition that he stay there for two years until he was eight years old. Misfortune haunted the Mendeleev family. In the autumn of 1847, his father died, and three months later, his sister Apollinaria. In the spring of 1849, Mitya graduated from the gymnasium, and Maria Dmitrievna, having sold her property, went first to Moscow with her children, and then to St. Petersburg. She wanted her youngest son to go to university. Only at the request of his mother, on August 9, 1850, Dmitry was enrolled as a student at the Main Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. Indeed, at the Pedagogical Institute, the recruitment of students took place every two years, and in the fall of 1850 there was no admission. Mendeleev began to live in a boarding house. At the Pedagogical Institute, the regime was more like barracks. Students could even leave for the city only for a short time, having received permission. Mendeleev had to catch up with his fellow students and independently study the material that his colleagues went through in the first year. This workload took a toll on his health. Outstanding Russian scientists taught at the Pedagogical Institute at that time - the mathematician Ostrogradsky, the physicist Lenz, the chemist Voskresensky and others. Voskresensky and professor of mineralogy Kutorga proposed to Mendeleev to develop a method for the analysis of orthite and pyroxene minerals delivered from Finland. He presented the results of his work in the article "Chemical analysis of orthite from Finland", published in 1854. This was the first scientific work of Mendeleev, who was graduating from the Institute the following year. In May 1855, the Academic Council awarded Mendeleev the title of "Senior Teacher" and awarded him a gold medal. Doctors recommended that he change the unhealthy Petersburg climate and move south. In Odessa, Mendeleev was appointed teacher of mathematics, physics and natural sciences at the gymnasium at the Richelieu Lyceum. He devoted a lot of time to work on his master's thesis, in which he considered the problem of "specific volumes" from the point of view of Gerard's unitary theory, completely rejecting the dualistic theory of Berzelius. This work showed Mendeleev's amazing ability to generalize and his wide knowledge of chemistry. In the fall, Mendeleev brilliantly defended his thesis, successfully read the introductory lecture "The Structure of Silicate Compounds," and at the beginning of 1857 he became assistant professor at St. Petersburg University. In 1859 he was sent abroad. Mendeleev spent two years in Germany, where he organized his own laboratory. There he achieved good results. In particular, he managed to prove the existence of a maximum boiling point of a liquid, above which substances can exist only in a gaseous state. This was of practical importance for the liquefaction of gases. At the end of February 1861, Mendeleev arrived in St. Petersburg. Finding a teaching job in the middle of the school year was impossible. He decides to write a textbook of organic chemistry. The textbook, which was published soon, as well as the translation of Wagner's "Chemical Technology", brought Mendeleev great fame. In the spring of 1863, Dmitry Ivanovich married Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva, and the newlyweds went on a honeymoon trip to Europe. The Academy of Sciences awarded Mendeleev the full Demidov Prize for his book Organic Chemistry. The amount was significant, and this money was quite enough for the trip. On January 1, 1864, Mendeleev was appointed to the post of full-time associate professor of organic chemistry at St. Petersburg University with a salary of 1200 rubles a year. Simultaneously with this position, Mendeleev received a professorship at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. The professors were also provided with an apartment at the institute. Now there were fewer worries about the material support of the family, and Mendeleev began work on his doctoral dissertation. The research continued for almost a year. Following the change in specific gravity depending on the percentage of alcohol in water, Mendeleev found that the solution has the highest density, in which the ratio between alcohol and water molecules is one to three. Subsequently, this discovery became the basis of the hydrate theory of solutions. Thesis defense took place on January 31, 1865. Two months later, Mendeleev was appointed extraordinary professor in the Department of Technical Chemistry at St. Petersburg University, and in December, an ordinary professor. In the summer months, Dmitry Ivanovich often traveled with his wife and son Volodya to the Boblovo estate. Mendeleev bought it in order to be able to conduct some research related to soil fertility. He regularly came to Boblovo, observed the work of the peasants, gave instructions on the use of mineral fertilizers. At that time, there was an urgent need to create a new textbook on inorganic chemistry, which would reflect the current level of development of chemical science. This idea captured Mendeleev. At the same time, he began to collect material for the second edition of the textbook, which was to include a description of the chemical elements. Mendeleev carefully studied the description of the properties of elements and their compounds. But in what order should they be carried out? There was no system for the arrangement of elements. Then the scientist made cardboard cards. On each card, he entered the name of the element, its atomic weight, formulas of compounds and basic properties. Gradually, the basket was filled with cards containing information about all the elements known by that time. And yet, for a long time, nothing happened. They say that the scientist saw the periodic table of elements in a dream, it only remained to write it down and substantiate it. Gradually, Mendeleev realized that with a change in atomic weight, the properties of the elements also change. February 1869 was drawing to a close. A few days later, the manuscript of the article containing the table of elements was completed and submitted for publication. Mendeleev went on an urgent business trip to one of the chemical plants. On March 6, his friend Professor of Chemistry Menshutkin reported this discovery at a meeting of the Russian Chemical Society. It is curious that at first Russian chemists did not understand what a great discovery they were talking about. But the significance of the table was realized by Dmitry Ivanovich himself. From the day when Mendeleev saw the manifestation of the law of nature behind the simple rows of symbols of chemical elements, other questions faded into the background. He abandoned work on the textbook "Fundamentals of Chemistry", and did not engage in research. The distribution of elements in the table seemed imperfect to him. In his opinion, the atomic weights were in many cases determined inaccurately, and therefore some elements did not fall into places corresponding to their properties. Taking the periodic law as a basis, Mendeleev changed the atomic weights of these elements and put them on a par with elements similar in properties. In an article published in German in the "Annals" published by Liebig, Mendeleev gave a large place to the section "Application of the periodic law to determine the properties of elements not yet discovered." He predicted and described in detail the properties of three elements still unknown to science - eka-boron, eka-aluminum and eka-silicon. For Mendeleev, the question of the periodic law was settled. And again lectures at the university, research in the laboratory, agricultural experiments in Boblovo, trips around the country to various chemical enterprises. At the same time, Mendeleev became deeply interested in another issue - the state of gases at very high pressure. The chairman of the Russian Technical Society, P. A. Kochubey, managed to get funds, and this made it possible to hire employees and buy equipment. The greatest result of this work was Mendeleev's equation of state for gases, which had a more general form than the well-known Clapeyron equation. One day in the autumn of 1875, when Mendeleev was looking through the Reports of the Paris Academy of Sciences, his eyes fell on the message of Lecoq de Boisbaudran about the discovery of a new element, which he called gallium. But the French researcher indicated the specific gravity of gallium - 4,7, and according to Mendeleev's calculations, eka-aluminum turned out to be 5,9. Mendeleev decided to write to the scientist, indicating that, judging by the properties of gallium discovered by him, this is nothing more than the eca aluminium. Indeed, more accurate determinations of the specific gravity of gallium gave a value of 5,94. The discovery of gallium caused a real sensation among scientists. The names of Mendeleev and Lecoq de Boisbaudran immediately became known to the whole world. Encouraged by the first success, scientists began to look for other, not yet discovered elements that were predicted by Mendeleev. In dozens of laboratories in Europe, work began to boil, hundreds of scientists dreamed of extraordinary discoveries. And success was not long in coming. In 1879, Professor Lars Frederik Nilson, who worked at Uppsala University (Sweden), discovered a new element that fully corresponds to the eka-boron described by Mendeleev. He named it scandium. The repeated proof of Mendeleev's predictions caused a real triumph. Reports soon began to come in about the election of Mendeleev as an honorary member of various European universities and academies. Surrounded by universal attention and fame, Mendeleev increasingly felt lonely and unhappy in his family. Relations with his wife were painfully difficult and hopeless, and even the children whom Mendeleev loved dearly could not brighten up his loneliness and alienation in the family. Often, locked in his office, he indulged in woeful reflections. It was at this time that his interest arose in Anna Ivanovna Popova, who was in their house with her friend, the music teacher of Mendeleev's daughter Olga. Anna Ivanovna was educated, she understood painting well. She felt at ease and free at the evenings that were held every Wednesday in Mendeleev's house, where famous artists gathered - Repin, Shishkin, Kuindzhi, Mendeleev's friends. Interest in the girl grew into deep sympathy, and then love came. The feeling of being lost that had plagued him in recent years was gone. In her presence, he simply transformed, not hiding the feelings that overwhelmed him. Not wanting to be the cause of Mendeleev's break with his family, Anna Ivanovna decided to leave St. Petersburg and went to Italy. However, Dmitry Ivanovich, having learned about her departure, dropped everything and went after her. A month later, they returned together. Mendeleev's life changed radically. Anna Ivanovna was an attentive and caring wife. Soon the new family of Dmitry Ivanovich began to grow - a daughter, Lyuba, was born, and a year later, a son, Ivan. But still, the joys and sorrows of his personal life did not distract him from the main thing - from science. The circle of interests of Mendeleev was very wide. His works on the chemistry of solutions are also classical. In addition, he did a lot of oil research and came close to discovering its complex composition. During the total solar eclipse of 1887, Mendeleev was supposed to rise in a balloon with an aeronaut. However, before the start it started to rain, the wet balloon could not rise with two passengers. Then Mendeleev landed a pilot and flew alone. They also say that in his spare time he made magnificent suitcases. In 1887, a revision of the customs tariff began in Russia on the orders of the then Minister of Finance I. A. Vyshnegradsky, with whom Mendeleev once studied at the Main Pedagogical Institute. By the autumn of 1889, a huge number of summaries, tables, reports and statements had accumulated in a commission composed of professors from the Technological Institute, but no one could bring all these materials into a coherent system, give them integrity. And then Mendeleev came into the view of the minister. Thanks to the report of Dmitry Ivanovich, the new customs tariff was put into effect on July 1, 1891. His book "Explanatory Tariff" for many years became the basis of Russian customs policy. Mendeleev had already become an established scientist, but relations with the authorities remained difficult. The whole reason was the independent nature of the scientist, because of which he was twice denied election to the members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, although by this time the scientist was already a member of hundreds of the most prestigious scientific societies in the world. In 1890, Mendeleev was dismissed from the university by order of the then Minister of Education, Count Delyanov. Knowing about Mendeleev's extensive knowledge in many fields of science, prominent statesmen often turned to him for advice and help. In 1892, Finance Minister Witte offered Dmitri Ivanovich the post of scientific curator of the Chamber of Weights and Measures, and Mendeleev agreed. Despite his advanced age, he began active and versatile work in this new field. Here the scientist also made several discoveries. In particular, he developed the most accurate weight standards. Dmitry Ivanovich worked until the last day. He died on the morning of January 20 (February 2), 1907. After Mendeleev's death, his name was given to the Russian Chemical Society, and annually on January 27, on the scientist's birthday, a solemn meeting takes place in St. Petersburg, at which the authors of the best works in chemistry are presented and they are awarded the D. I. Mendeleev medal. This award is considered one of the most prestigious in the world of chemistry. Author: Samin D.K.
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