Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner

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Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner

Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner
Born (1780-12-13)13 December 1780
Hof, Bayreuth
Died 24 March 1849(1849-03-24) (aged 68)
Jena, Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Nationality German
Fields Chemistry
Known for Döbereiner's triads
Döbereiner's lamp

Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (13 December 1780 24 March 1849) was a German chemist who is best known for work that foreshadowed the periodic law for the chemical elements.

Life and work

As a coachman's son, Döbereiner had little opportunity for formal schooling. So he was apprenticed to an apothecary, reading widely, and attending science lectures. He eventually became a professor at the University of Jena in 1810; he also studied chemistry at Strasbourg. In work beginning in 1829,[1] Döbereiner discovered trends in certain properties of selected groups of elements. For example, the average atomic mass of lithium and potassium was close to the atomic mass of sodium. A similar pattern was found with calcium, strontium, and barium, with sulfur, selenium, and tellurium, and also with chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Moreover, the densities for some of these triads followed a similar pattern. These sets of elements became known as "Dobereiner's Triads".[1][2]

Döbereiner's lamp

Döbereiner also is known for his discovery of furfural, for his work on the use of platinum as a catalyst, and for a lighter, known as Döbereiner's lamp.

The German writer Goethe was a friend of Döbereiner, attended his lectures weekly, and used his theories of chemical affinities as a basis for his famous 1809 novella Elective Affinities.

References

Further reading

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