Myths about the father of chemistry’s alphabet still persist
Published 10 June, 2009, 10:24
Russian Scientist Dmitry Mendeleev is the man behind one of the basic concepts of chemistry - the Periodic Table of Elements. However, Mendeleev was not only a trendsetter in science, but also in economics.
No chemistry class can do without the periodic table of the elements – the alphabet of chemistry.
“Guys, in this experiment we can see the reaction between such elements as manganese, potassium, iodine and carbon,” explains Alesey Kosarev, a chemistry teacher in one of Moscow’s schools.
The theoretical part of the lesson will probably make some students roll their eyes, but most of the items which are part of our everyday life wouldn't exist without such knowledge. All material things in the world are composed of different combinations of over a hundred elements, and the first man to create a coherent system which would describe and define their properties was Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleev. Back in the 19th century, he arranged them in such an order which meant he could predict the properties of elements not even discovered yet.
Life of Dmitry Mendeleev – great chemist, among other things
“He left blank spaces in the table predicting the atomic weight and properties of some elements which, back in the 1870s, were not known to the world. Then they were discovered and Mendeleev was proved to be right,” says Pavel Sarkisov, the Head of Mendeleev institute and president of Russia's chemical community.
Mendeleev’s work was surrounded by myths. Many still think he came up with classic Russian 40% proof vodka. Indeed, his university dissertation was on reactions between alcohol and water, but the 40% vodka standard came into existence much earlier in his childhood.
The other favourite myth is that the periodic table came to him in a dream. Later he reportedly confessed that he made the story up to put the nagging questions of how on earth he could put the elements in that precise order to rest.
Mendeleev's brilliance extended beyond the laboratory – he was also a top government economist.
“You know most of his works are not on chemistry – they are on the development of industries in Russia!” says Igor Dmitriev, a historian from St. Petersburg.
Among them is everything from coal and oil to cheese and beer. The shell still battery invented by Dmitry Mendeleev for oil distillation is still used by thousands of refineries today. At the end of the 19th century every oil-refinery in Russia was built under his guidance. By the beginning of the 20th century Russia was the world's number one crude exporter.
“Mendeleev said the future of Russia's economy was not in selling crude but making products out of it, developing industries,” says Igor Dmitriev.
Important as his ideas were, it's his contribution to chemistry that he remains best known for. It's almost doubled in size since he first created it and, like Mendeleev's legacy, it will continue to grow.
discuss it Show comments (1)
