Jöns Jacob Berzelius

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Berzelius" redirects here. For other uses, see Berzelius (disambiguation).

Jacob Berzelius
Johann Afzelius
Doctoral studentsJames Finlay Weir Johnston
Heinrich Rose
Friedrich Wöhler
Member of the Swedish Academy
(Seat No. 5)
In office
20 December 1837 – 7 August 1848
Preceded byCarl von Rosenstein
Succeeded byJohan Erik Rydqvist

Baron Jöns Jacob Berzelius (Swedish: [jœns ˈjɑ̌ːkɔb bæˈʂěːlɪɵs][1] (20 August 1779 – 7 August 1848) was a Swedish chemist. In general, he is considered the last person to know the whole field of chemistry.[2] Berzelius is considered, along with Robert Boyle, John Dalton, and Antoine Lavoisier, to be one of the founders of modern chemistry.[3] Berzelius became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1808 and served from 1818 as its principal functionary. He is known in Sweden as the "Father of Swedish Chemistry". During his lifetime he did not customarily use his first given name, and was universally known simply as Jacob Berzelius.[4]

Although Berzelius began his career as a

"Law of Constant Proportions".[5]

Berzelius was a strict

organic compounds.[7][8] Among the many minerals and elements he studied, he is credited with discovering cerium and selenium, and with being the first to isolate silicon and thorium. Following on his interest in mineralogy
, Berzelius synthesized and chemically characterized new compounds of these and other elements.

Berzelius demonstrated the use of an

superscripts to designate the number of atoms of each element present in the compound. Later, chemists changed to use of subscripts rather than superscripts.[5]

Biography

Early life and education

Berzelius was born in the parish of Väversunda in

Katedralskolan.[10] As a teenager, he took a position as a tutor at a farm near his home, during which time he became interested in collecting flowers and insects and their classification.[11]

Berzelius later enrolled as a

medical student at Uppsala University, from 1796 to 1801. Anders Gustaf Ekeberg, the discoverer of tantalum, taught him chemistry during this time. He worked as an apprentice in a pharmacy, during which time he also learned practical matters in the laboratory such as glassblowing.[11] On his own during his studies, he successfully repeated the experimentation conducted by Swedish chemist Carl William Scheele which led to Scheele's discovery of oxygen.[10] He also worked with a physician in the Medevi mineral springs. During this time, he conducted an analysis of the water from this source. Additionally as part of his studies, in 1800, Berzelius learned about Alessandro Volta's electric pile, the first device that could provide a constant electric current (i.e., the first battery). He constructed a similar battery for himself, consisting of alternating disks of copper and zinc, and this was his initial work in the field of electrochemistry.[5][11]

As thesis research in his medical studies, he examined the influence of

analytical chemist and provided him with a laboratory.[8]

Academic career

In 1807, Berzelius was appointed professor in chemistry and pharmacy at the Karolinska Institute.[5] Between 1808 and 1836, Berzelius worked together with Anna Sundström, who acted as his assistant and was the first female chemist in Sweden.[12]

In 1808, he was elected a member of the

tenure, he is credited with revitalising the Academy and bringing it into a second golden era (the first being the astronomer Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin's period as secretary from 1749 to 1783).[13] He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1822.[14] In 1827, he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, and in 1830 associate member.[15]
In 1837, he was elected a member of the Swedish Academy, on chair number 5.

Temperance movement

Berzelius was active in the

Svenska nykterhetssällskapet (the Swedish Temperance Society) in 1837 and its first chairman.[16] Berzelius wrote the foreword to one of Carl af Ekenstam's [sv] works on the topic, of which 50,000 copies were printed.[17]

Illustration of Berzelius (published 1903)

Later life

Through much of his life, Berzelius suffered various medical ailments. These included recurrent

migraine headaches and then later on he suffered from gout. He also had episodes of depression.[11]

In 1818, Berzelius had a nervous breakdown, said to be due to the stress of his work.[10] The medical advice he received was to travel and take vacation. However, during this time, Berzelius traveled to France to work in the chemical laboratories of Claude Louis Berthollet.[11]

In 1835, at the age of 56, he married Elizabeth Poppius, the 24-year-old daughter of a Swedish cabinet minister.[11]

He died on 7 August 1848 at his home in Stockholm, where he had lived since 1806.[18] He is buried in the Solna Cemetery.[10]

Portrait by Olof Johan Södermark (1790–1848). Print Artist: Charles W. Sharpe, d. 1875(76)

Achievements

Law of definite proportions

Daguerreotype of Berzelius.

Soon after arriving in Stockholm, Berzelius wrote a chemistry textbook for his medical students, Lärbok i Kemien, which was his first significant scientific publication. He had conducted experimentation, in preparation for writing this textbook, on the compositions of inorganic compounds, which was his earliest work on definite proportions.

atomic theory proposed by John Dalton: that inorganic chemical compounds are composed of atoms of different elements combined in whole number amounts. In discovering that atomic weights are not integer multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen, Berzelius also disproved Prout's hypothesis that elements are built up from atoms of hydrogen.[26]: 682–683  Berzelius's last revised version of his atomic weight tables was first published in a German translation of his Textbook of Chemistry in 1826.[27]

Chemical notation

In order to aid his experiments, he developed a system of chemical notation in which the elements composing any particular chemical compound were given simple written labels—such as O for oxygen, or Fe for iron—with their proportions in the chemical compound denoted by numbers. Berzelius thus invented the system of chemical notation still used today, the main difference being that instead of the subscript numbers used today (e.g., H2O or Fe2O3), Berzelius used superscripts (H2O or Fe2O3).[28]

Discovery of elements

Berzelius is credited with discovering the chemical elements cerium and selenium and with being the first to isolate silicon, thorium, titanium and zirconium. Berzelius discovered cerium in 1803[29] and selenium in 1817.[30] Berzelius also discovered how to isolate silicon in 1824,[31] and thorium in 1824.[32][33] Students working in Berzelius's laboratory also discovered lithium, lanthanum, and vanadium.[34]

Berzelius discovered amorphous silicon by repeating an experiment performed by Gay-Lussac and Thénard in which they reacted silicon tetrafluoride with potassium metal which produced very impure silicon. In a variation of this experiment Berzelius heated potassium fluorosilicate with potassium. It produced potassium silicide which he then stirred with water to produce relatively pure silicon powder. Berzelius recognized this powder as the new element of silicon, which he called silicium,[35] a name proposed earlier by Davy.[36]

Berzelius was the first to isolate zirconium in 1824, but pure zirconium was not produced until 1925, by Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer.[37]

New chemical terms

Volumes I-III of Lärbok i kemien

Berzelius is credited with originating the chemical terms "catalysis",[38] "polymer," "isomer," "protein" and "allotrope," although his original definitions in some cases differ significantly from modern usage.[39] As an example, he coined the term "polymer" in 1833 to describe organic compounds which shared identical empirical formulas but which differed in overall molecular weight, the larger of the compounds being described as "polymers" of the smallest.[40] At this time the concept of chemical structure had not yet been developed so that he considered only the numbers of atoms of each element. In this way, he viewed for example glucose (C6H12O6) as a polymer of formaldehyde (CH2O), even though we now know that glucose is not a polymer of the monomer formaldehyde.[41]

Biology and organic chemistry

Berzelius was the first person to make the distinction between organic compounds (those containing carbon), and inorganic compounds. In particular, he advised Gerardus Johannes Mulder in his elemental analyses of organic compounds such as coffee, tea, and various proteins. The term protein itself was coined by Berzelius, in 1838, after Mulder observed that all proteins seemed to have the same empirical formula and came to the erroneous conclusion that they might be composed of a single type of very large molecule. The term is derived from the Greek, meaning "of the first rank", and Berzelius proposed the name because proteins were so fundamental to living organisms.[42]

In 1808, Berzelius discovered that lactic acid occurs in muscle tissue, not just in milk.

The term biliverdin was coined by Berzelius in 1840, although he preferred "bilifulvin" (yellow/red) over "bilirubin" (red).[43]

Vitalism

Volumes 4-6 of Lärbok i kemien, titled Lärbok i organiska kemien

Berzelius stated in 1810 that living things work by some mysterious "vital force",

inorganic compounds). However, in 1828, Friedrich Wöhler accidentally obtained urea, an organic compound, by heating ammonium cyanate. This showed that an organic compound such as urea could be prepared synthetically and not exclusively by living organisms. Berzelius corresponded with Wöhler on the urea synthesis findings. However, the notion of vitalism continued to persist, until further work on abiotic synthesis of organic compounds provided substantial evidence against vitalism.[45][46]

Works
Figures in an 1818 copy of Berzelius' "Tabell, som utvisar vigten af större delen vid den oorganiska Kemiens studium"
Figures in an 1818 copy of Berzelius' "Tabell, som utvisar vigten af större delen vid den oorganiska Kemiens studium"

Relations with other scientists

The Letters of Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Christian Friedrich Schönbein 1836 1847, London 1900

Berzelius was a prolific correspondent with leading scientists of his time, such as Gerardus Johannes Mulder, Claude Louis Berthollet, Humphry Davy, Friedrich Wöhler, Eilhard Mitscherlich and Christian Friedrich Schönbein.

In 1812, Berzelius traveled to London, England, including

Greenwich to meet with prominent British scientists of the time. These included Humphry Davy, chemist William Wollaston, physician-scientist Thomas Young, astronomer William Herschel, chemist Smithson Tennant, and inventor James Watt, among others. Berzelius also visited Davy's laboratory. After his visit to Davy's laboratory, Berzelius remarked, "A tidy laboratory is a sign of a lazy chemist."[39]

Humphry Davy in 1810 proposed that chlorine is an element. Berzelius rejected this claim because of his belief that all acids were based on oxygen. Since chlorine forms a strong acid (muriatic acid, modern HCl), chlorine must contain oxygen and thus cannot be an element. However, in 1812,

Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac
demonstrated that prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) contains only hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, and no oxygen. These findings persuaded Berzelius that not all acids contain oxygen, and that Davy and Gay-Lussac were correct: chlorine and iodine are indeed elements.

Honors and recognition

Statue of Berzelius in the center of Berzelii Park, Stockholm

In 1818 Berzelius was

friherre.[47]

In 1820 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.[48]

The

Royal Society of London gave Berzelius the Copley Medal in 1836 with the citation "For his systematic application of the doctrine of definite proportions to the analysis of mineral bodies, as contained in his Nouveau Systeme de Mineralogie, and in other of his works."[citation needed
]

In 1840, Berzelius was named Knight of the Order of Leopold.[49] In 1842, he received the honor Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.[50]

Berzelianite included in calcite from the Skrikerum mine in Sweden

The mineral berzelianite, a copper selenide, was discovered in 1850 and named after him by James Dwight Dana.[51][52]

In 1852, Stockholm, Sweden, built a public park and statue, both to honor Berzelius. Berzeliusskolan, a school situated next to his alma mater, Katedralskolan, is named for him. In 1890, a fairly prominent street in Gothenburg was named Berzeliigatan (Berzelii street) in his honour.

In 1898, the Swedish Academy of Sciences opened the Berzelius Museum in honor of Berzelius. The holdings of the museum included many items from his laboratory. The museum was opened on the occasion of fiftieth anniversary of Berzelius's death. Invitees at the ceremony marking the occasion included scientific dignitaries from eleven European nations and the United States, many of whom gave formal addresses in honor of Berzelius.[53] The Berzelius Museum was later moved to the observatory that is part of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.[8]

In 1939 his portrait appeared on a series of postage stamps commemorating the bicentenary of the founding of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.[54] In addition to Sweden, Grenada likewise honored him.[11]

The Berzelius secret society at Yale University is named in his honor.

See also

References

  1. ^ KI:s grundare Jöns Jacob Berzelius (in Swedish). Karolinska Institute. 9 September 2013. Event occurs at 00:42. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2019 – via YouTube.
  2. ISBN 978-0-12-823144-9
    .
  3. ^ "Jöns Jacob Berzelius". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 3 August 2008.
  4. ^ "Svenska akademien, ledamotsregister (Swedish Akademy, register of members)" (in Swedish). Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Jöns Jakob Berzelius". sciencehistory.org. Science History Institute. June 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  6. ^ Melhado, Evan M. (3 November 2023). "Jöns Jacob Berzelius". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  7. ^ "Jons Jacob Berzelius – discoverer of thorium&cerium elements". worldofchemicals.com. World of Chemicals. 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  8. ^ a b c Marshall, James L.; Marshall, Virginia R. "Rediscovery of the Elements: Jöns Jacob Berzelius" (PDF). chem.unt.edu. University of North Texas Department of Chemistry. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  9. ISBN 978-1-332-58610-3
    .
  10. ^ a b c d "Jacob Berzelius". famousscientists.org. Famous Scientists. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  11. ^
    PMID 29728209
    . Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  12. ^ "Karolinska Institutet 200 År – 1810–2010". 20 October 2010.
  13. ^ Centre for History of Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: KVA och Berzelius Archived 19 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 23 May 2009 (in Swedish)
  14. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
  15. ^ "Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779–1848)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  16. ^ "Svenska nykterhetssällskapet". Nordisk familjebok (in Swedish). 1918. pp. 1025ff – via Project Runeberg.
  17. ISBN 9789188468222
    .
  18. ^ "Berzelius, Johan Jakob, Baron". Chamber's Biographical Dictionary 1897.
  19. ^ Berzelius, Jacob (1813). "Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy Method of expressing them. I. On the Relation between Berthollet's Theory of Affinities and the Laws of Chemical Proportions. II. On the Cause of Chemical Proportions". Annals of Philosophy; or, Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralology, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture and the Arts. 2 (12): 443–454 – via Google Books.
  20. ^ Berzelius, Jacob (1813). "Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy Method of expressing them. I. On the Relation between Berthollet's Theory of Affinities and the Laws of Chemical Proportions. II. On the Cause of Chemical Proportions". Annals of Philosophy; or, Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralology, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture and the Arts. 2 (12): 443–454 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  21. ^ Berzelius, Jacob (1814a). "Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy Method of expressing them. III. On the Chemical Signs, and the Method of Employing them to Express Chemical Proportions. IV. Weight of elementary Volumes compared with that of Oxygen Gas". Annals of Philosophy; or, Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralology, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture and the Arts. 3 (13, 14, 16, 17): 51–62, 93–106, 244–257, 353–364 – via Google Books.
  22. ^ Berzelius, Jacob (1814b). "Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy Method of expressing them. III. On the Chemical Signs, and the Method of Employing them to Express Chemical Proportions. IV. Weight of elementary Volumes compared with that of Oxygen Gas". Annals of Philosophy; or, Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralology, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture and the Arts. 3 (13, 14, 16, 17): 51–62, 93–106, 244–257, 353–364 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  23. ^ Berzelius, Jacob (1814c). "Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy Method of expressing them. IV. Weight of elementary Volumes compared with that of Oxygen Gas (Comparative Table of the Specific Weights of Elementary Bodies.)". Annals of Philosophy; or, Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralology, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture and the Arts. 3 (17): 362 – via Google Books.
  24. ^ Berzelius, Jacob (1814d). "Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy Method of expressing them. IV. Weight of elementary Volumes compared with that of Oxygen Gas (Comparative Table of the Specific Weights of Elementary Bodies.)". Annals of Philosophy; or, Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralology, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture and the Arts. 3 (17): 362 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  25. ^ Berzelius, Jacob (1814e). "Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy Method of expressing them. III. On the Chemical Signs, and the Method of Employing them to Express Chemical Proportions. IV. Weight of elementary Volumes compared with that of Oxygen Gas (Comparative Table of the Specific Weights of Elementary Bodies.)". Annals of Philosophy; or, Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralology, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture and the Arts. 3 (13, 17): 51–62, 362 – via Giunta, Carmen. Classic Chemistry.
  26. ISBN 978-0-19-974376-6
    .
  27. ^ "Jöns Jacob Berzelius | Swedish chemist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  28. ^ Berzelius 1814a, Vol III, pp 51–52.
  29. ^ "Cerium". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  30. ^ "Selenium". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  31. ^ "Silicon". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  32. ^ "Thorium". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  33. doi:10.1038/162210b0
    .
  34. ^ Blamire, John. "Jons Jacob Berzelius". brooklyn.cuny.edu. City University of New York. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  35. doi:10.1080/14786442508628433
    – via Google Books.
  36. ^ Wilton, Dave. "Silicon". wordorigins.org. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  37. ^ "Zirconium". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  38. ^ Although Bezelius introduced the term catalysis he did not introduce the concept, which was well understood by Elizabeth Fulhame a generation earlier.
  39. ^
    JSTOR 24640238
    .
  40. doi:10.1021/ed085p624
    .
  41. ISBN 978-3-319-01137-0
    .
  42. ^ Tammi, Martti T. "Searching for protein composition and function". bioinformaticshome.com. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  43. ^ Watson, Cecil J. (1977). Berk, Paul D. (ed.). International Symposium on Chemistry and Physiology of Bile Pigments. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health. p. 4.
  44. ISBN 978-84-370-3328-0
  45. PMC 6208063
    .
  46. ISBN 978-0-520-08110-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  47. ^ Biographical Dictionary of Scientists ed. T. I. Williams. London: A. & C. Black, 1969; pp. 55–56
  48. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  49. ^ Almanach royal officiel de Belgique/1841 p. 118
  50. ISBN 3-7861-6189-5. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 22 June 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  51. ^ "Handbook of mineralogy Berzelianite" (PDF).
  52. ^ "Berzelianite: Berzelianite mineral information and data". www.mindat.org. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  53. ISBN 978-0-520-01628-6
    .
  54. ^ "Sweden – Circa 1939: stamp printed by Sweden, shows Jons Jakob Berzelius". 123rf.com. 123RF. Retrieved 26 December 2019.

Further reading

External links

Library resources about
Jöns Jacob Berzelius
By Jöns Jacob Berzelius
Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about Jöns Jacob Berzelius.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jöns Jacob Berzelius.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Jöns Jacob Berzelius.
Cultural offices
Preceded by Swedish Academy,
Seat No. 5
1837–48 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jöns_Jacob_Berzelius&oldid=1215565885"