Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand
Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand | |
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University of Lund |
Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand (20 October 1826 – 5 November 1897) was a
Education and career
Blomstrand was born in Växjö, Sweden to his father John Blomstrand, who was a teacher, and his wife Severina Rodhe.[3]
Blomstrand studied
Blomstrand was appointed an adjunct lecturer and laboratory demonstrator in chemistry at the University of Lund in 1856.[3] He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1861.[citation needed] He became a professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Lund in 1862, remaining there until his retirement in 1895.[3] He served as rector of the university from 1871-1872.[6]
The elements
Blomstrand's experimental research involved the characterization and analysis of minerals, particularly those which were rare or of unknown composition. These included
In 1864, Blomstrand was the first person to successfully obtain the element niobium in pure form.[7][8][9] Blomstrand had been studying various metal chlorides, and he identified the oxychloride of niobium, NbOCl3 as part of this investigation.[7] He then isolated niobium by placing niobium chloride in an atmosphere of hydrogen and heating it. In that way, he obtained pure metallic niobium as a steel-gray material.[10]: 343 [11] Niobium had previously been discovered in 1801 by English scientist Charles Hatchett, using an ore obtained from the United States. Hackett named the element Columbium, only being renamed Niobium in 1950. However, the element was not obtained in pure form until Blomstrand conducted his investigations.[12]
In 1870, Blomstrand proposed a new way of systematizing the elements, a "natural system" based on atomicity (the ability of elements to combine with other elements) and the electrochemical properties of the element. Organizing the elements into subgroups of even and odd atomicity revealed "extraordinary regularities".[2]: 156 [13] While Blomsrand's system was a significant advance toward developing a periodic table of the elements, it did not account well for
Chemical structure
One of Blomstrand's goals was to develop an understanding of how atoms are bonded together to form compounds and the resulting chemical structures of compounds.[14] He attempted to reconcile the dualistic theory of Jöns Jacob Berzelius with unitary and type theories.[1][3][15]
Blomstrand developed the most widely accepted of the 19th century theories of
"It is the important task of the chemist to reproduce faithfully in his own way the elaborate constructions which we call chemical compounds, in the erection of which the atoms serve as building stones, and to determine the number and relative positions of the points of attack at which any atom attaches itself to any other; in short, to determine the distribution of the atoms in space." Blomstrand, Die Chemie der Jetztzeit (Chemistry of Today, 1869)
Recognition
The island Blomstrandhalvøya and the glacier Blomstrandbreen on Spitsbergen are named after him.[17]
Representative publications
- Blomstrand, Kristian Vilhelm (1869). Die Chemie der Jetztzeit: vom Standpunkte der electrochemischen Auffassung, aus Berzelius Lehre entwickelt. ISBN 978-1-144-80510-2.
- Kemper, R. (1869). "Die Chemie der Jetztzeit vom Standpunkte der elektrochemischen Auffassung aus Berzelius Lehre entwickelt von C. W. Blomstrand. XIV. u. 417 S. Heidelberg, Carl Winter 1869". Archiv der Pharmazie. 189 (1–2): 173–175. S2CID 97036099.
References
- ^ .
- ^ ISBN 9780190200077. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Blomstrand, Christian Wilhelm". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 2. Charles Scribner's Sons (Online edition: Gale In Context). 2008. pp. 199–200.
- ^ .
- ^ House Of Commons, Great Britain. Parliament (1869). House of Commons papers.
- ^ Tersmeden, Fredrik (2015). "Rektoratet vid Lunds universitet - några historiska glimtar" (PDF). Lund University. p. 25. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
- ^ a b Marshall, James L. Marshall; Marshall, Virginia R. Marshall (2013). "Rediscovery of the elements: Niobium and Tantalum" (PDF). The Hexagon: 46–51. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
- S2CID 97246260.
- ]
- ^ Weeks, Mary Elvira (1956). The discovery of the elements (6th ed.). Easton, PA: Journal of Chemical Education.
- .
- ^ "Niobium Element Facts". chemicool.com. Doug Stewart. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
- ]
- ^ Moran, Laurence A. (August 1, 2007). "Nobel Laureates: Max Perutz and John Kendrew". SandWalk. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
- ^ "Jöns Jakob Berzelius". Science History Institute. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
- ^ Halpern, Jack; Kauffman, George B. (August 3, 2018). "Coordination compound". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
- ^ "Blomstrandbreen (Svalbard)". Norwegian Polar Institute. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
Further reading
- E. v. Meyer (1945). "Zur Erinnerung an Friedrich Stohmann und Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand". Journal für Praktische Chemie. 56 (1): 397–400. .