Dmitri Mendeleev

DMITRI MENDELEEV

Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907), a Russian chemist, was born in Siberia, where after he attended the gynasium of his native palce, he went to study natural science at St. Petersburg, where he graduated in chemistry in 1856. In 1860 he went to Heidelberg, where he started a laboratory of his own, but returned to St.Petersburg, where he was appointed to a professorship and in 1866 succeeded to the Chair in the University.
Mendeleev is known for revolutionizing our understanding of the properties of atoms and creating a table that probably embellishes every chemistry classroom in the world. His greatest accomplishment was the stating of the Periodic Law and the development of the Periodic Table. From early in his career, he felt that there was some type of order to the elements, so he spent more than thirteen years of his life collecting data and assembling the concept. His first Periodic Table was compiled on the basis of arranging the elements in ascending order of atomic weight and grouping them by similarity of properties. He predicted the existence and properties of new elements and pointed out accepted atomic weights that were in error. By arranging all of the 63 elements then known by their atomic weights, he managed to organize them into groups possessing similar properties. He constructed the tables by listing the elements in rows or columns in order of atomic weight and starting a new row or column when the characteristics of the elements began to repeat. Where a gap existed in the table, he predicted a new element would one day be found and deduce its properties.
Mendeleev was one of the first modern-day scientists in which he did not depend completely on his own work, but rather was in correspondence with scientists around the world in order to receive data that they had collected. He then used their data along with his own data to arrange the elements according to their properties. He is credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements for which in, The Nobel Committee for Chemistry recommended to the Swedish Academy to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Mendeleev for his discovery of the periodic system.
Besides his work on general chemical concepts as discussed earlier, Mendeleev spent much of his time working to improve technological advances of Russia. Many of his research findings dealt with agricultural chemistry, oil refining, and mineral recovery. Dmitri was also one of the founding members of the Russian Chemical Society and helped open the lines of communication between scientists in Europe and the United States. Mendeleev also pursued studies on the properties and behavior of gases at high and low pressures, which led to his development of a very accurate differential barometer and further studies in meteorology. He also became interested in balloons, which led to a rather dangerous adventure as he made a solo rise, without any prior experience, whereas his family was rather concerned too but ultimately he completed his observations and found a way of transportation through his efficient working.
In another department of physical chemistry, he investigated the expansion of liquids with heat, and devised a formula similar to Gay-Lussac’s law of the uniformity of the expansion of gases, while as far back as 1861 he anticipated Thomas Andrews’ conception of the critical temperature of gases by defining the absolute boiling-point of a substance as the temperature at which cohesion and heat of vaporization become equal to zero and the liquid changes to vapor, irrespective of the pressure and volume. Mendeleev is also given credit for the introduction of the metric system to the Russian Empire. He invented pyrocollodion, a kind of smokeless powder based on nitrocellulose.

Throughout the remainder of his life, Dmitri Mendeleev received numerous awards from various organizations including the Davy Medal from the Royal Society of England, the Copley Medal, the Society’s highest award, and honorary degrees from universities around the world and continued to be a popular social figure until his death at the age of seventy two in Petersburg.

Work Cited

Creation Wiki (2011) (Dmirtri Mendeleev). Retrieved on Octo. 21, 2013 at

Kiwi Web (1998) (Dmitri Mendeleev). Retrieved Oct. 21, 2013 at

NNDB (2013) (Dmitri Mendeleev). Retrieved on Oct. 20, 2013 at

Wikipedia (2013) (Periodic Table). Retrieved on Oct. 21, 2013 at

Cited: Creation Wiki (2011) (Dmirtri Mendeleev). Retrieved on Octo. 21, 2013 at Kiwi Web (1998) (Dmitri Mendeleev). Retrieved Oct. 21, 2013 at NNDB (2013) (Dmitri Mendeleev). Retrieved on Oct. 20, 2013 at Wikipedia (2013) (Periodic Table). Retrieved on Oct. 21, 2013 at