Jöns Jacob Berzelius Biography

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World of Scientific Discovery on Jöns Jacob Berzelius

Berzelius was born in Väversunda, Sweden, on August 20, 1779. His father died when he was four years old, and his mother when he was eight. He was educated at the local school in Linköping and later was tutored by his stepfather and others.

Berzelius attended medical school in Uppsala, Sweden, where he received his degree in 1802. While a student at Uppsala, Berzelius was introduced to chemistry by his stepbrother. The two read through a chemistry textbook by themselves and carried out some experiments together. His doctoral dissertation concerned the effects of electricity on various medical disorders--research that produced no new findings, but established his lifelong interest in electrical phenomenon.

After leaving Uppsala, Berzelius took a position as assistant to the professor of medicine and pharmacy at the College of Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden. The position paid no salary, but it allowed Berzelius to pursue his interest in chemistry. In 1807, he was appointed to the position of professor of medicine and pharmacy at the College of Medicine. A year later he was elected a member of the Swedish Academy of Science. In 1810 he became president of the Academy, and in 1818 was appointed secretary of the organization. By 1832 he had chosen to devote all of his energies to the Academy, resigning his post at the College of Medicine.

Berzelius' earliest research grew out of his interest in electrical effects. He and a close friend, Wilhelm Hisinger (1766-1852), studied the effects of electrical current on a number of saltwater solutions. They found that salts could be decomposed by an electrical current, with hydrogen and metals collecting at the negative electrode and oxygen at the positive electrode. These experiments were later improved upon and extended by Sir Humphry Davy in England. Their mutual interest in this topic led to a long-term friendship between the two scientists.

Based upon the results of his research, Berzelius arrived at a theory of the composition of compounds, asserting that all compounds consist of both electrically positive atoms and electrically negative atoms. A compound such as potassium oxide was produced, he thought, by the combination of positive potassium atoms and negative oxygen atoms. In his view, some atoms had both a positive and a negative tendency, displaying their positive characteristic when combined with a negative atom and their negative characteristic when combined with a positive atom. Berzelius' dualistic or electrochemical theory became popular, especially in the field of mineralogy, but he was unsuccessful in adapting the theory to organic compounds, and the idea eventually fell out of favor with chemists.

Nonetheless, Berzelius was widely recognized as one of the great scientific researchers of his era. He discovered three new elements, selenium (1818), silicon (1824), and thorium (1829). He and Hisinger also discovered cerium in 1803, shortly after Martin Klaproth had announced the same discovery.

One of Berzelius' greatest accomplishments involved his work on atomic weights. Upon learning of John Dalton's atomic theory, he became an immediate and enthusiastic proponent of the concept. He also realized the importance of determining the atomic weights of the elements as accurately as possible. Over the decade from 1807 to 1817, Berzelius conducted careful analyses of more than 2,000 compounds of 43 elements. In order to complete these analyses, he frequently had to invent new instruments or develop new techniques of analysis. His research eventually allowed him to publish a list of atomic weights that was by far the most accurate yet produced.

Berzelius also played an important role in organizing and codifying the science of chemistry. In 1831, for example, he studied the problem of chemical compounds that have the same chemical formula but different physical and chemical properties. He suggested that such compounds be called isomers, meaning "compound of equal parts." Similarly, in 1840 he proposed that all elements with more than one set of properties be termed allotropes. Berzelius also studied substances that alter the rate of chemical reactions without being altered by the reactions themselves. He proposed the name catalyst for such substances.

The one area that students are most likely to associate with Berzelius is that of chemical symbols. Before Dalton's time, chemists had used picture-like drawings to represent the elements. Dalton had tried to improve this practice by specifying certain pictographs for the atoms of each element, a system which seemed clumsy and illogical to Berzelius. He proposed instead that each chemical element be represented by a single letter or a pair of letters taken from the Latin name for the element. Thus, he assigned the letter O as the chemical symbol for oxygen, H for hydrogen, N for nitrogen, Au for gold (aurum), Pb for lead (plumbum), and so on. This system is still used in chemistry today.

Berzelius's impact on chemistry resulted not only from his own research and theorizing, but also from his skills as an educator, writer, and administrator. In 1803 he published the first edition of his chemistry textbook, which subsequently went through six editions in six languages. For the next 50 years, the book was regarded as the final authority in the field of chemistry. Berzelius also published an annual review of chemical research each year between 1821 and 1849.

Through such means as his textbook and annual reviews, Berzelius dominated European chemistry until his death in 1848. This influence was not always positive. As he grew older, he seemed less willing to accept new ideas. His prestige was such that his opinions were often enough to restrain valid ideas that did not meet with his approval. In 1835, at the age of 56, Berzelius married for the first time; as a wedding gift, the Swedish King Charles XIV made Berzelius a baron of the realm. Berzelius died in Stockholm on August 7, 1848.