MENDELEYEV, DMITRY IVANOVICH

(1834–1907), chemist; creator of the periodic table of elements.

Dmitry Mendeleyev was born in Tobolsk, Siberia, where his father was the director of the local gymnasium. In 1853 he enrolled in the Main Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg, which trained secondary school teachers. His early interest in chemistry focused on isomorphism—the groups of chemical elements with similar crystalline forms and chemical properties. In 1856 he earned a magisterial degree from St. Petersburg University and was appointed a private docent at the same institution. In 1859 a state stipend took him to the University of Heidelberg for advanced studies in chemistry. In 1861 he returned to St. Petersburg University and wrote Organic Chemistry, the first volume of its kind to be published in Russian. He offered courses in analytical, technical, and organic chemistry. In 1865 he defended his doctoral dissertation and was appointed professor of chemistry, a position he held until his retirement in 1890.

In 1868, with solid experience in chemical research, he undertook the writing of The Principles of Chemistry, a large study offering a synthesis of contemporary advances in general chemistry. It was during the writing of this book that he discovered the periodic law of elements, one of the greatest achievements of nineteenth-century chemistry. In quality this study surpassed all existing studies of its kind. It was translated into English, French, and German. In 1888 the English journal Nature recognized it as "one of the classics of chemistry" whose place "in the history of science is as well-assured as the ever-memorable work of [English chemist John] Dalton."

An international gathering of chemists in Karlsruhe in 1860 had agreed in establishing atomic weights as the essential features of chemical elements. Several leading chemists immediately began work on establishing a full sequence of the sixty-four elements known at the time. Mendeleyev took an additional step: he presented what he labeled the periodic table of elements, in which horizontal lines presented elements in sequences of ascending atomic weights, and vertical lines brought together elements with similar chemical properties. He showed that in addition to the emphasis on the diversity of elements, the time had also come to recognize the patterns of unity.

Beginning in the 1870s, Mendeleyev wrote on a wide variety of themes reaching far beyond chemistry. He was most concerned with the organizational aspects of Russian industry, the critical problems of agriculture, and the dynamics of education. He tackled demographic questions, development of the petroleum industry, exploration of the Arctic Sea, the agricultural value of artificial fertilizers, and the development of a merchant navy in Russia. In chemistry, he elaborated on specific aspects of the periodic law of elements, and wrote a large study on chemical solutions in which he advanced a hydrate theory, critical of Svante Arrhenius's and Jacobus Hendricus van't Hoff's electrolytic dissociation theory. At the end of his life, he was engaged in advancing an integrated view of the chemical unity of nature. Mendeleyev saw the future of Russia in science and in a philosophy avoiding the rigidities of both idealism and materialism.

bibliography

Mendeleev, Dmitry. (1901). The Principles of Chemistry, 4 vols. New York: Collier.

Rutherford, Ernest. (1934). "The Periodic Law and its Interpretation: Mendeleev Centenary Lecture," Journal of the Chemical Society 1934 (1):635–642.

Vucinich, Alexander. (1967). "Mendeleev's Views on Science and Society." ISIS 58:342–351.

Alexander Vucinich