Nickel Axel Fredrik Cronstedt 1751

Axel Fredrik CronstedtBaron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt (/kroonstet/ December 23 1722 – August 19 1765) was a Swedish mineralogist and chemist who discovered nickel in 1751 as a mining expert with the Bureau of Mines. Cronstedt described it as kupfernickel. This name arises because the ore has a similar appearance to copper (kupfer) and a mischievous sprite (nickel) was supposed by miners to be the cause of their failure to extract copper from it. He was a pupil of Georg Brandt, the discoverer of cobalt. Cronstedt is one of the founders of modern mineralogy [1] and is described as the founder by John Griffin in his 1827 A Practical Treatise on the Use of the Blowpipe..

Niobium Charles Hatchett 1801

Charles HatchettCharles Hatchett FRS (2 January 1765 – 10 March 1847[1]) was an English chemist who discovered the element niobium.[2]

Biography

Hatchett was born, raised, and lived in London. On 24 March 1787, he married Elizabeth Collick at St Martin's-in-the-Fields, with issue including:

1. John Charles Hatchett (bapt 27 January 1788 St Martin's-in-the-Fields)2. Anna Hatchett, who married William Brande

Hatchett died in London and is buried at St Laurence's Church, Upton, Slough, the same church where William Herschel is interred.

In 1801 while working for the British Museum in London, Hatchett analyzed a piece of columbite in the museum's collection. Columbite turned out to be a very complex mineral, and Hachett discovered that it contained a "new earth" which implied the existence of a new element. Hatchett called this new element columbium (Cb). On 26 November of that year he announced his discovery before the Royal Society.[3][4] The element was later rediscovered and renamed niobium (its current name).

Rhodium William Hyde Wollaston 1803

William Hyde WollastonWilliam Hyde Wollaston FRS (6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering two chemical elements and for developing a way to process platinum ore.

Biography

Wollaston was born in East Dereham, Norfolk, the son of the priest-astronomer Francis Wollaston (1737-1815) and his wife Mary Farquier. He was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge: in 1793 William obtained a doctorate in medicine from Cambridge University and was a fellow of his college from 1787 to 1828. During his studies he became interested in chemistry, crystallography, metallurgy and physics. The mineral wollastonite is named after him. In 1800 he left medicine and concentrated on pursuing these interests instead of his trained vocation.

Wollaston died in London in 1828 and was buried in Chislehurst, England.

Yttrium Johan Gadolin 1789

Johan GadolinJohan Gadolin (5 June 1760 – 15 August 1852) was a Finnish chemist, physicist and mineralogist. Gadolin discovered the chemical element yttrium. He was also the founder of Finnish chemistry research, as the second holder of the Chair of Chemistry, established in 1761 and first held by Pehr Adrian Gadd (4 April 1727 – 11 August 1797).

Early life

Johan Gadolin was born in Turku, Finland (then a part of Sweden), as the son of Jakob Gadolin. He began to study mathematics at the Royal Academy of Turku when he was fifteen. Soon he found mathematics too laborious and changed his major to chemistry. In 1779 Gadolin moved to Uppsala University where he was taught by Torbern Bergman.

In 1790, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Ruthenium Karl Karlovich Klaus 1844

Karl Ernst ClausKarl Ernst Claus (also Karl Klaus or Carl Claus, Russian: Карл Ка́рлович Кла́ус, born and died in Dorpat (now Tartu), Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire, 23 January 1796 – 24 March 1864) was a Russian chemist and naturalist of Baltic German origin. Claus was professor at Kazan State University and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was primarily known as a chemist and discoverer of the chemical element ruthenium, but also as one of the first scientists who applied quantitative methods in botany.[1][2][3]

Scandium Lars Fredrik Nilson 1879

Lars Fredrik NilsonLars Fredrik Nilson (27 May 1840 – 14 May 1899) was a Swedish chemist who discovered scandium in 1879.

Life and work

Nilson was born in Skönberga parish in Östergötland, Sweden. His father, Nikolaus, was a farmer. The family moved to Gotland when Lars Fredrik was young. After graduating from school, Lars Fredrik enrolled at Uppsala University, and there he studied the natural sciences. His talent for chemistry drew attention from chemistry professor Lars Svanberg, who was a former student of Jöns Jakob Berzelius.[1]

In 1874 Nilson became associate professor of chemistry, and from then on he could devote more time to research. While working on rare earths, in 1879 he discovered scandium. During this time he also studied the gas density of metals which made it possible to determine the valence of various metals.[1]

In 1882 he became director of the chemistry research department of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. His research partially took a new direction from then on. He conducted studies on cow milk and various fodder plants.[1]

Nilson was a member of several academies and got several awards, including the Order of the Polar Star.[1]

Titanium The Reverend William Gregor 1791

William GregorWilliam Gregor (25 December 1761 – 11 June 1817) was the British clergyman and mineralogist who discovered the elemental metal titanium.

Discovery of titanium

After a brief interval at Bratton Clovelly, William and his family moved permanently to the rectory of Creed in Cornwall. Here, he began a remarkably accurate chemical analysis of Cornish minerals. In 1791, while studying ilmenite from the Manaccan valley, he isolated the calx of an unknown metal which he named manaccanite.[1] Later in 1791, Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovered what is now known as titanium in the mineral rutile. Believing this to be a new discovery, Klaproth named it titanium after the Titans of Greek Mythology, but eventually it was clarified that Gregor made the discovery first. Gregor was credited with the discovery, but the element kept the name chosen by Klaproth. Gregor later found titanium in corundum from Tibet, and in a tourmaline from a local tin mine.

Death and legacy

Gregor was an original member of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall in 1814.[1] Never letting his scientific work interfere with his pastoral duties, he was also a distinguished landscape painter, etcher and musician. He died of tuberculosis on 11 June 1817 and was buried in a nearby churchyard.

Ytterbium Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac 1878

Jean Charles Galissard de MarignacJean Charles Galissard de Marignac (24 April 1817 – 15 April 1894) was a Swiss chemist whose work with atomic weights suggested the possibility of isotopes and the packing fraction of nuclei and whose study of the rare earth elements led to his discovery of ytterbium in 1878 and codiscovery of gadolinium in 1880.

Argon Sir William RamsayLord Rayleigh

1894

William Ramsay

Sir William Ramsay, KCB FRSE (2 October 1852 – 23 July 1916) was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" (along with Lord Rayleigh who received the Nobel Prize in Physics that same year for the discovery of argon).

Actinium André-Louis Debierne 1899

André-Louis Debierne

André-Louis Debierne (Paris, 14 July 1874 - 31 August 1949, Paris) was a French chemist and is considered the discoverer of the element actinium.

Debierne, studied at the elite École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI ParisTech)[1]. He was a student of Charles Friedel, was a close friend of Pierre and Marie Curie and was associated with their work. In 1899, he discovered the radioactive element actinium, as a result of continuing the work with pitchblende that the Curies had initiated.

After the death of Pierre Curie in 1906, Debierne helped Marie Curie carry on and worked with her in teaching and research.

In 1910, he and Marie Curie prepared radium in metallic form in visible amounts. They did not keep it metallic, however. Having demonstrated the metal's existence as a matter of scientific curiosity, they reconverted it into compounds with which they might continue their researches.