Jöns Jakob Berzelius
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|
J. J. Berzelius | |
|---|---|
 Jöns Jakob Berzelius (1779-1848) | |
| Born |
20 August, 1779 |
| Died | 7 August, 1848 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Residence |  Sweden
|
| Nationality | Swedish
|
| Field | Chemist |
| Institutions | Karolinska Institute |
| Alma mater | Crane, Poole & Schmidt |
| Academic advisor | Johann Afzelius |
| Notable students | James Finlay Weir Johnston Heinrich Rose |
| Known for | Law of constant proportions Silicon Selenium Thorium Cerium |
Friherre Jöns Jakob Berzelius (August 20, 1779 – August 7, 1848) was a Swedish chemist. Adversity in childhood fostered within Berzelius an independent spirit which was evident in his rigorous approach to the study of chemistry and medicine. Chemistry was his first love. He found the young science in a state of disorganization and speculation which challenged him to apply a standard of experiment and proof. Working with the Swedish industrialist Wilhelm Hisinger, he discovered a new element, cerium. His system of chemical notation, is basically the same one used today. Berzelius, together with John Dalton and Antoine Lavoisier, is considered a father of modern chemistry.
<<Early Life>>
Berzelius was born in Vaversunda in Östergötland in Sweden. His father died when he was 4 years old and although his mother remarried, she also died shortly thereafter. The young Berzelius was passed from aunt to uncle in what seems to have been a half hearted effort to care for the lad. He felt liberated when at the age of 14 he was admitted to the boarding school today known as Katedralskolan. These years saw Berzelius finding employment in a variety of areas including tutoring and farm work. It was said that he enjoyed outdoor life far more than the classroom and this suited his robust consitution and good health. Scholarship assistance allowed him to enroll at the Uppsala University where he concentrated his studies on Chemistry while learning the profession of medical doctor. He was at Uppsala from 1796 till 1801. There he learned chemistry from Anders Gustaf Ekeberg the discoverer of tantalum.
Following his graduation from the University, Berzelius moved to Stockholm in 1802 where he worked as an unpaid teacher at the School of Surgery. In order to survive he earned money serving as a doctor to the poor. At one point he worked with a physician in the Medevi mineral springs where he conducted a thorough chemical analysis of the spring water. In the course of his ongoing medical studies Berzelius examined the effect of galvanic current on several diseases. During this period a mine owner Wilhelm Hisinger discovered his analytical abilities and provided him with a laboratory.
<<Research and Recogntion>>
In 1807 Berzelius was appointed professor at the School of Surgery which later became the Karolinska Institute. Berzelius was instrumental in helping to establish the school as a Medical College. In 1810 the school became a part of Medico-Chirurgiska Institute, the predecessor to the Karolinska Institute, and Berzelius was appointed professor in chemistry and pharmacy.—>
Not long after arriving in Stockholm, he wrote a chemistry textbook for his medical students. From then onward, he began a long and fruitful career in chemistry. While conducting experiments in support of the textbook he discovered the law of constant proportions, which showed that inorganic substances are composed of different elements in constant proportions by weight. By 1818 he began to explore the basic nature of matter and built on the atomic theory proposed by the British chemist John Dalton. Berzelius experimented with the notion that the stuff of the natural world is composed of basic elements and that each element can be reduced to its basic unit, the atom, which has a specific weight for each element. Based on this idea, in 1828 he compiled a table of relative atomic weights, where oxygen was set to 100, and which included 45 of the 49 elements known at that time. His work provided substantial evidence in favor of the molecular and atomic theory: that inorganic chemical compounds are composed of atoms combined in whole number amounts. In discovering that atomic weights are not integer multiples of hydrogen's, Berzelius also disproved Prout's hypothesis that elements are built up from atoms of hydrogen.
In order to aid his experiments, he developed a system of chemical notation in which the elements were given simple written labels; such as O for oxygen, or Fe for iron and when found in compounds their proportions were noted by numbers. This is the same basic system used today, the only difference being that instead of the subscript number used today (e.g., H2O), Berzelius used a superscript.
Berzelius is credited with identifying the chemical elements silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium. Students working in Berzelius' laboratory also discovered lithium, and vanadium.
See also
Berzelius is also credited with originating the term "polymer," though his original definition differs dramatically from modern usage. Berzelius coined the term in 1833 to describe organic compounds which shared identical empirical formulas but differed in overall molecular weight, the larger of the compounds being described as "polymers" of the smallest.
Berzelius had an impact on biology as well. He was the first person to make the distinction between organic compounds (those containing carbon), and inorganic compounds. In particular, he advised Gerhardus Johannes Mulder in his elemental analyses of organic compounds such as coffee, tea and various proteins. The term "protein" itself was coined by Berzelius, after Mulder observed that all proteins seemed to have the same empirical formula and might be composed of a single type of (very large) molecule. Berzelius proposed the name because the material seemed to be the primitive substance of animal nutrition that plants prepare for the herbivores.
Berzelius was a prolific correspondent, advising many leading scientists (such as Mulder, Claude Louis Berthollet, Humphry Davy, Friedrich Wöhler and Eilhard Mitscherlich), and fostering many less-notable scientists.
After denying the fact that chlorine is an element, which was presented by Humphry Davy in 1810 for quite some time the dispute ended in Berzelius' admission that it must be true after the finding of iodine in 1813.
Berzeliusskolan, a school situated next to his alma mater Katedralskolan, is named for him.
His contributions to the science of chemistry included research with both organic and inorganic materials and were foundational in the development of modern chemical analysis. His committment to pure research science was evidenced by his view that few discoveries would be made if science were only seen as a means to an end. In 1818 he was elected Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. There Berzelius established a reputation as the revitalizer of that institution.
Berzelius became chairman of the Public Health Committee of the Parish of Adolph Fredrik during the cholera epidemic of 1834. He distinguished himself by battling the disease with the best practices then available to the health profession in spite of opposition from those who claimed the causes to be astrological and inevitable.
In 1835, at the age of 56, he married Elisabeth Poppius, the 24-year-old daughter of a Swedish cabinet minister. Although he married late in life, he settled into a happy and faithful state of matrimony finding his young wife to be an exceptionally bright and understanding partner.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
<<We need at least 3 reliable references here, properly formatted.>>
Bernhard, Carl Gustaf; Through France With Berzelius, Live Scholars and Dead Volcanoes, Pergamon Press, Oxford, England , c. 1985 ISBN 0-08036378-4
- Jaime Wisniak (2000). Jöns Jacob Berzelius A Guide to the Perplexed Chemist. The Chemical Educator 5 (6): 343-350.
Further Reading
A biography on Jac. Berzelius and his fish - his life and work was written by J. Erik Jorpes and published in 1966 and 1970 (originally in Swedish, first published in 1949).
External links
- Publications - at Project Runeberg
- Works by Jöns Jacob Berzelius. Project Gutenberg
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Berzelius, J. J. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 20 August, 1779 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Väversunda, Östergötland, Sweden |
| DATE OF DEATH | 7 August, 1848 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Stockholm, Sweden |
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