Scientific Picanteria – Picante stories of scientist's life
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907)
A Russian chemist and inventor.
Mendeleev is famous of formulated the Periodic Table of the elements. He also predicted the properties of eight elements yet to be discovered. Mendeleev was born in Siberia (1834), as the youngest son of 11-17 (the exact number differs among sources) brothers and sisters. In 1849, his mother took Ivan across the entire state of Russia, to Moscow, with the aim of getting a higher education for her son. Moscow University did not accept him, but St. Petersburg University did. Mendeleev soon became professor at the St. petersburg Technological Institute and St. P. State University.
In 1965 M. became a Doctor of Science, by 1871 he had transformed St. P. University into an international recognizied center of chemistry research. He was widely honored by scientific organizations all over Europe, including (in 1882) getting the Davy Medal from the Royal Society of London.
Mendeleev also worked on the petroleum by helping the first oil refining in Russia.
In 1905, M. was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and was nominated for the Nobel price.
In 1892, M. was appointed as the director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, a post which he occupied until he died.
Mendeleev worked with famous scientists all over Europe and was famous for many scientific inventions.
Not many Knows the details of his personal life…..
His first wife (Feozva) was a nurse, a lot older then him. He was not happy in this marriage, but ended them only after 13 years when he fell in love with a young artist: Anna Ivanova Popova.
He divorced his first wife one month after he had married Popova. Mendeleev was technically a Bigamist because the Russian orthodox church required at least 7 years before lawful marriage, after divorcing.
The Tsar Alexander ignored his Bigamist state because of his position and fame.
Mendeleev had 6 children, 2 from his first wife and 4 from his second.
A very popular Russian story tells that is was Mendeleev who came up with the 40% standard strength of Vodka, in 1894.
I think Mendeleev was a genius and fruitful researcher in many science disciplines.