… , The. p. 111). Anna was much younger than Dmitri was but they loved each other very much and were together until death. They had four children in total together, Lyubov, Ivan, and twins, Vasili and Maria.
Anna also influenced Dmitri’s views on art considerably and he was elected to the Academy of Arts because he was thought to have insightful criticism and for his painting. As Dmitri grew older, he cared less and less about his personal appearance. In his later years, Dmitri would only cut his hair and beard once a year. He wouldn’t even cut it at the Czar’s request.
It was apparent that Dmitri’s work was his first and only priority. Dmitri also believed that education was of the utmost importance, so he published many books. In 1854, he published his first book, Chemical Analysis of a Sample from Finland. His published his last books in 1906, A Project for a School for Teachers and Toward Knowledge of Russia. The first edition of Principles of Chemistry was printed in 1868 and in 1861, at 27 years old, he published his most famous book, Organic Chemistry. This book won him the Domi dov Prize and put him about of other Russian chemists.
Both these books were used as classroom texts. All in all, all of Dmitri’s transcripts that involved his research findings and beliefs totaled well over 250 ideas. Other than working on general chemical concepts, Dmitri also spent much of his time trying to improve Russia’ technological advances. Many of his research findings dealt with agricultural chemistry, oil refining, and mineral recovery. Dmitri was also one of the founding members of the Russian Chemical Society in 1868 and he helped open the lines of communication between scientists in Europe and the United States.
Dmitri also did studies on the properties and behaviors of gases at high and low pressures, which led to him developing a very accurate barometer and further studying in meteorology. Dmitri was also interested in balloons. His greatest and most well known accomplishment was the stating of the Periodic Law and the development of the Periodic Table. From the beginning of his career in science, Dmitri believed that there was some sort of order to the elements and spent more than thirteen years of his life collecting data and assembling the concept. He wanted to do this in order to clear up some of the confusion about the elements for his students.
Dmitri was considered one of the first modern-day scientists because he did not use only his own work and discoveries, but communicated with other scientists around the world to receive the data that they had collected. He then used all the data that he had and gathered to arrange the elements according to their properties. He believed that: No law of nature, however general, has been established all at once; its recognition has always been preceded by many presentiments. The establishment of a low, moreover, does not take place when the first thought of it takes form, or even when its significance is recognized, but only when it has been confirmed by the results of the experiment. The man of science must consider these results as the only proof of the correctness of his conjectures and opinions. (Mendeleev, Eminent Chemists of Our Time.
p. 28. ) In 1866, Newlands published a book filled with the relationships of the elements called, Law of Octaves. Dmitri’s ideas were similar to Newlands, but Dmitri had more collected data and went father along in his research than Newlands had done. By 1869, Dmitri had assembled detailed descriptions of more than 60 elements and on March 6, 1869, a formal presentation was made to the Russian Chemical Society called, “The Dependence Between the Properties and the of the Elements.” Dmitri could not deliver this presentation due to an illness and his colleague Professor Menshutken had to do it for him.
There were eight key points to the presentation: 1. The elements, if arranged according to their atomic weights, exhibit an apparent periodicity of properties. 2. Elements which are similar as regards their chemical properties have atomic weights which are either of nearly the same value (e.
g. Pt, Ir, Os) or which increase regularly (e. g. K, Ru, Cs).
3. The arrangement of the elements, or of groups of elements in the order of their atomic weights, corresponds to their so-called valences, as well as, to some extent, to their distinctive chemical properties; as is apparent among other series in that of Li, Be, Ba, C, N, O, and Sn. 4. The elements which are the most widely diffused have small atomic weights.
5. The magnitude of the atomic weight determines the character of a compound body. 6. We must expect the discovery of many as yet unknown elements-for example, elements analogous to aluminum and silicon-whose atomic weight would be between 65 and 75. 7.
The atomic weight of an element may sometimes be amended by a knowledge of those of its contiguous elements. Thus the atomic weight of tellurium must lie between 123 and 126, and cannot be 128. 8. Certain characteristic properties of elements can be foretold from their atomic weights. (Mendeleev, Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. p.
408. ) On November 29, 1870, Dmitri took his concepts even further by realizing that it was possible to predict the properties of undiscovered elements. He made predictions for three new elements (ek a-aluminum, ek a-bor no, and ek a-silicon) and stated their properties of density, radii, and combining ratios among oxygen, just to name a few. Scientists were puzzled by these predictions and many shunned them. Dmitri’s ideas were finally taken seriously when in November, 1875, a Frenchman, Le coq de Boisbaudran discovered Dmitri’s predicted element, ek a-aluminum, which he decided to name Gallium. Later on, the two other elements were discovered and their properties were found to be very close to when Dmitri had predicted.
This justified his periodic law and his predictions. At 35 years old, Dmitri Mendeleev was at the top of the science world. Throughout the rest of his life, Dmitri received numerous awards from different organizations, including the Davy Medal from the Royal Society of England in 1882, the Copley Medal, the Society’s highest award in 1905, and honorary degrees from different universities around the world. After Dmitri had resigned from the University of St.
Petersburg, the Russian government had appointed him the Director of Bureau of Weights and Measures in 1893. This had been done to keep public disapproval of the government down. Until his death, Dmitri had been considered a popular social figure. In his last lecture at the University of St. Petersburg, Dmitri said: I have achieved an inner freedom. There is nothing in this world that I fear to say.
No one nor anything can silence me. This is a good feeling. This is the feeling of a man. I want you to have this feeling too – it is my moral responsibility to help you achieve this inner freedom. I am an evolutionist of a peaceable type. Proceed and a logical and systematic manner.
(Mendeleev, Encyclopedia of Chemistry, The. p. 711. ) Dmitri was a man who rose out of the crowd to lead his people and followers into the future. The motto of Dmitri Mendeleev’s life was work, which he stated as: Work, look for peace and calm in work: you will find it nowhere else. Pleasures flit by – they are only for yourself; work leaves a mark of long-lasting joy, work is for others.
(Mendeleev, Short History of Chemistry, A. p. 195) On January 20 1907, at the age of 73, while listening to a reading of Jules Verne’s Journey to the North Pole, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev floated away, peacefully, for the last time. He was a genius of his time and made a significant amount of contributions to his people and the entire world. He helped modernize and set a faster pace for education in science, technology, and politics. He also taught others the benefits of hard work and to always believe in yourself and to stand behind and voice your opinions no matter how radical they may seem.
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