An Attempt Towards a Chemical Conception of the Ether

by Dmitri Mendeleev, George Kamensky

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102 pages, Hardcover

First published February 22, 2010

About the author

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (Russian: Дмитрий Менделеев) was a pioneering Russian chemist best known for formulating the periodic law and creating an early version of the periodic table of elements. His periodic law allowed him not only to correct the properties of some known elements, such as uranium, but also to predict the existence and characteristics of three elements that had yet to be discovered: germanium, gallium, and scandium. These achievements cemented his reputation as one of the foundational figures in modern chemistry.
Mendeleev was born in Verkhnie Aremzyani, near Tobolsk in Siberia, to Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev, a school principal and teacher of fine arts, politics, and philosophy, and Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, who came from a prominent Tobolsk merchant family. Raised in the Orthodox Christian tradition, he was encouraged by his mother to pursue both divine and scientific truth. He was the youngest of seventeen children, many of whom did not survive infancy. The family endured significant financial hardships: his father became blind and lost his teaching position, while his mother worked to restart her family’s abandoned glass factory. These early struggles instilled in Mendeleev resilience and self-reliance, qualities that shaped his later scientific endeavors.
At the age of thirteen, Mendeleev entered the Gymnasium in Tobolsk, demonstrating academic promise despite the family’s limited resources. In 1849, his mother took him to Saint Petersburg in the hope of enrolling him in university. Though initially unsuccessful at Moscow University, he entered the Main Pedagogical Institute in Saint Petersburg in 1850. After graduating, he briefly taught in Crimea while recovering from tuberculosis, and later returned to Saint Petersburg, fully restored to health. During this period, he also undertook studies in capillarity and spectroscopy in Heidelberg, and published Organic Chemistry, a textbook that earned him the Demidov Prize.
Mendeleev became a professor at the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute and at Saint Petersburg State University, where he earned a Doctor of Science degree with a dissertation on the combinations of water with alcohol. He quickly became an influential figure in Russian chemistry, transforming Saint Petersburg into a center of chemical research. While preparing Principles of Chemistry, he noticed recurring patterns in elemental properties. By arranging the elements according to atomic weight and valence, he formulated the periodic table, which revealed periodicity in chemical behavior. Mendeleev famously described visualizing the complete arrangement in a dream. His system not only organized known elements but also predicted the properties of elements yet to be discovered. He used Sanskrit-derived prefixes such as eka-, dvi-, and tri- to designate these missing elements, reflecting his appreciation for the linguistic insights of ancient Sanskrit grammarians.
Mendeleev’s work extended beyond the periodic table. He made significant contributions to chemistry, physics, and industrial science, including studies on the capillarity and expansion of liquids, the composition of petroleum, and the development of smokeless powder for the Russian Navy. He recognized petroleum’s potential as a feedstock for petrochemicals and played a key role in founding Russia’s first oil refinery. He also helped introduce the metric system to Russia, standardizing weights and measures, and oversaw industrial and agricultural initiatives, including demographic studies, Arctic exploration, and improved fertilizer application.
Throughout his career, Mendeleev received wide recognition for his achievements. He was nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, received prestigious awards such as the Davy Medal and Copley Medal from the Royal Society, and held memberships in scientific societies across Europe. Despite this, political and personal conflicts sometimes hindered recognitio

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