The History and Life of Dmitri Mendeleev

1. The History and Life of Dmitri Mendeleev By: Brian Stewart

2. Early Childhood • As a child, Dmitri Mendeleev knew he wanted to go into the field of science. Born in Toblosk, Siberia, in 1834, and believed to be the youngest of at least 14 children, Mendeleev had to learn early what struggles in life are like. However, it is a common belief that Mendeleev was the favorite of his mother’s children. His mother worked extremely hard to earn enough money to put her youngest son through school.1

3. Later Childhood Even in his later childhood, Mendeleev went through both trials, and struggles, as he continued his journey through life. When he was toward the beginning of his high school career, his father went blind, and his mother was forced to go into the workforce in her own glass factory.1

4. Continued Struggles in Early Life • As Mendeleev neared the end of his high school career, his mother’s glass factory burned down. Out of work, and out of a workplace, Mendeleev and his family are forced to move to one of the major hubs of activity in Russia, St. Petersburg. With most of their children already moved out, Dmitri’s mother worked endlessly to try and successfully put her son into college to continue on and get a full education.1

5. Educational Trials • Before moving to St. Petersburg to attempt to apply for college, Mendeleev and his family moved to Moscow to attempt to earn an education. However, due to political unrest, the universities in Moscow would not accept people from outside of Moscow. This, is when his mother moved them to St. Petersburg, where, with help from a friend, Dmitri was allowed to take entrance exams for Pedagogical Institute, where his father graduated, and got accepted . . . although not with honors. 1

6. Scientific Achievements • Mendeleev will forever go down in history for one of the most major accomplishments in Chemistry: The ordering of the periodic table. Even towards the beginning of his studies, Mendeleev believed that their had to be some order to the elements on the periodic table. Mendeleev spent nearly 13 years of his life working on this project, with the original intention behind the work being to make the jumble of chemistry easier for some of his chemistry students.1

7. Basis of Science • Mendeleev was unlike many scientists of his age because he worked in conjunction with scientists of the age. When Newland published his widely known, “Law of Octaves,” Mendeleev believed Newland had stopped too soon and had not gone far enough. In 1869, after assembling his data, Mendeleev had arranged over 60 elements, and presented it to the Russian Chemical Society. Mendeleev published his discoveries in these theses:1

8. Publication of Ideas • The elements, if arranged according to their atomic weights, exhibit an apparent periodicity of properties. • Elements which are similar as regards their chemical properties have atomic weights which are either of nearly the same value (eg. Pt, Ir, Os) or which increase regularly (eg. K, Ru, Cs). • The arrangement of the elements, or of groups of elements in the order of their atomic weights, corresponds to their so-called valencies, as well as, to some extent, to their distinctive chemical properties; as is apparent among other series in that of Li, Be, Ba, C, N, O, and Sn. • The elements which are the most widely diffused have small atomic weights. • The magnitude of the atomic weight determines the character of the element, just as the magnitude of the molecule determines the character of a compound body. • We must expect the discovery of many as yet unknown elements-for example, elements analogous to aluminum and silicon- whose atomic weight would be between 65 and 75. • The atomic weight of an element may sometimes be amended by a knowledge of those of its contiguous elements. Thus the atomic weight of tellurium must lie between 123 and 126, and cannot be 128. • Certain characteristic properties of elements can be foretold from their atomic weights.2

9. Scientific Achievement • Mendeleev’s findings were vindicated in many ways, but none more important than the later discovery, while Mendeleev was still alive, of elements Mendeleev predicted would eventually be discovered (boron, silicon, and aluminum) • Mendeleev was truly taken seriously in 1875, when Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered the element aluminum1

10. Affect on Today • Although not obvious at first, Dmitri Mendeleev’s discovery and ordering of the periodic table are revolutionary ideas that truly impact chemical studies even today. It is a common agreement among many chemists that the periodic table is the basis behind all of chemistry, that the periodic table should be a chemists, “best friend,” so to speak. That affect on today just goes to show how much it affects us even today. In a chemistry class, students use a periodic table every day, and without the revolutionary ideas of Mendeleev, that table would be much more challenging to interpret and understand.

11. Belief of the Times • As is fortunate for the many discoveries of the period, the 19th century was a period of scientific discovery. It was during the 19th century that a man by the name of William Whewell coined the term, “scientist,” giving many an idea of the acceptance of science in the 19th century, and a slow but sure transition from the religious beliefs of the 18th century, and the scientific, psychological beliefs of the 19th century.3

12. Bibliography • 1. Rumppe, R., & Sixtus, M. E. (n.d.). Ich bin mendelejeff. Retrieved from http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/chemistry/institutes/1992/Mendeleev.html • 2. Thorpe, T. E. (1889). Scientific worthies xxvi [XL, 193-197]. Retrieved from http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/chemistry/institutes/1992/Mendeleev.html • 3. Kant, I. (2000, December 23). William whewell. Retrieved from http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/whewell/