Early Life
Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian chemist who law. He classified the elements in the periodic table. He also foretold the properties of three of the possible elements.
Dmitri Mendeleev was born on February 8, 1834, in Russia, to Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev and Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleev. Dmitri had a tough childhood after the death of his father. For a short while, Dmitri's family survived on his father's pension. But it was not enough, so they started to work in a glass factory. Another disaster struck Dmitri's family. The glass factory, which his mother used to run, was burned down. The family moved on to settle in St Petersburg.
Dmitri graduated from the Main Pedagogical Institute in 1855 and got a master's degree in chemistry in 1856. During hard times, he still pursued his dream and worked hard. He learned mathematics, physics and chemistry. After studying overseas for some time, Dmitri went back to St Petersburg and worked as a professor. After he completed his studies in chemistry, he realized that there were few good chemistry textbooks available. To resolve this issue, Dmitri researched and worked on his own books. He went to an international conference in which scientists who were interested in atoms and elements had gathered. This impacted the young Dmitri, who started to think about the different elements in chemistry. He soon wrote his thesis, On the Combination of Water with Alcohol.
Mendeleev even came up with a complete textbook of organic chemistry. It was a 500 page textbook. He won the Demidov Prize for the success of this book. He became a member of many popular scientific societies. His lectures were attended by a large number of students from various departments.
His major contribution to science was discovering the periodic table of elements for which he used the periodic law. In 1869, his research caught the attention of the famous Russian Chemical Society, and the society's newspaper published his work and findings about the atomic weights of the elements. In 1870, Mendeleev explained the periodic law. He released his second book The Principles of Chemistry in two volumes in 1868 and 1870, respectively. The book became very popular and was translated into French, German and English.
Not only did he discover the periodic table,
but he also predicted three of the possible elements which needed to be found. While he worked on the table, he left an empty space for a new chemical element whose properties were entirely different from the other elements in its group. When those three elements were eventually discovered, Mendeleev's periodic table of elements was proven accurate. Mendeleev's periodic table of elements set the foundation for the development of modern chemistry. The table itself is flexible and is still developing. At the end of the eighteenth century, Mendeleev retired from his university position. He got involved in government-related work. He propounded various theories on mass, weight and gases. He also proposed that there are many important chemical compounds present in petroleum. He was not only good at chemistry, but he also took an interest in solar eclipses, the movement of the pendulum clock, mining, and polar ice. Mendeleev mastered physics, natural sciences, and economics. He was awarded the Copley Medal in 1905. He received the highest honor for his discovery of the periodic table by
The British Royal Society.
Mendeleev married Feozna Nikitchna in 1862. But after twenty years of marriage, the couple got divorced. In 1882, he married Anna Ivanova Popova. He was the father of six children
Mendeleev died on February 2, 1907, at the age of 72 in St Petersburg, Russia. As a tribute on his funeral day, many people bought copies of the periodic table. A crater on the moon, a planetoid, and element number 101 were named after him.