Alyssa Eaves
Professor David Bergbreiter
CHEM 227
22 November 2014 Dmitri Mendeleev: A Biography
Today in American classrooms, the name Dmitri Mendeleev conjures up the sole image of a periodic table, secure and immutable with all its ordered numbers and letters marching along in dependable patterns. More than one hundred years ago in Imperial Russia, the name Dmitri Mendeleev would call to mind séance scandals, economic tariffs, hot air balloon rides, a nationwide push for the metric system, bigotry charges, and student protests. This was the Mendeleev that Russia knew and (mostly) loved. The periodic table was just a particularly prescient project tucked away in an introductory chemistry textbook, widely known to the scientific community …show more content…
Mendeleev lived and worked before there was a consensus on the constitution of an atom. Were they solid and uniform throughout with only mass differentiating between elements, or were they particulate and composed of certain “sub-atoms”? Mendeleev staunchly adhered to the former theory and explained certain phenomenon characteristic of electrons and protons (valence properties, radioactivity) as a result of this ether (book). Proving its existence would require extensive research enabled by assistants, expensive equipment, and laboratory space. Realizing the necessity of considerable funds for such a comprehensive endeavor, Mendeleev “[perpetuated] the false impression that he was interested in high-pressure research with applications to ballistics” and roped in government ministries to fund his research project (51). Mendeleev let the government believe that establishing certain calibrations and behavior at low pressures was essential to eventually developing high-pressure artillery useful to the military. He published volume one of his research, dealing solely with low-pressure theory, and promised that volume two with high-pressure applications would arrive soon. It never did, and after about ten years of research, Mendeleev grew frustrated and disinterested when no evidence of the ether manifested. Despite his determination to validate the ether, this inevitably fruitless search did not occupy his whole attention during the
Professor David Bergbreiter
CHEM 227
22 November 2014 Dmitri Mendeleev: A Biography
Today in American classrooms, the name Dmitri Mendeleev conjures up the sole image of a periodic table, secure and immutable with all its ordered numbers and letters marching along in dependable patterns. More than one hundred years ago in Imperial Russia, the name Dmitri Mendeleev would call to mind séance scandals, economic tariffs, hot air balloon rides, a nationwide push for the metric system, bigotry charges, and student protests. This was the Mendeleev that Russia knew and (mostly) loved. The periodic table was just a particularly prescient project tucked away in an introductory chemistry textbook, widely known to the scientific community …show more content…
Mendeleev lived and worked before there was a consensus on the constitution of an atom. Were they solid and uniform throughout with only mass differentiating between elements, or were they particulate and composed of certain “sub-atoms”? Mendeleev staunchly adhered to the former theory and explained certain phenomenon characteristic of electrons and protons (valence properties, radioactivity) as a result of this ether (book). Proving its existence would require extensive research enabled by assistants, expensive equipment, and laboratory space. Realizing the necessity of considerable funds for such a comprehensive endeavor, Mendeleev “[perpetuated] the false impression that he was interested in high-pressure research with applications to ballistics” and roped in government ministries to fund his research project (51). Mendeleev let the government believe that establishing certain calibrations and behavior at low pressures was essential to eventually developing high-pressure artillery useful to the military. He published volume one of his research, dealing solely with low-pressure theory, and promised that volume two with high-pressure applications would arrive soon. It never did, and after about ten years of research, Mendeleev grew frustrated and disinterested when no evidence of the ether manifested. Despite his determination to validate the ether, this inevitably fruitless search did not occupy his whole attention during the