Dmtri Mendeleev

Dmtri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born on February 7, 1834. He was born in the city of Tobolsk in Siberia. He was born with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was the youngest of 14 children. He is the son of Maria Dmitrievna Korniliev and Ivan Pavlovitch Mendeleev. His father was a director of a gymnasium, or what we would call a school, Maria decided to settle in Tobolsk because her family owned a glass making factory and offered a job managing it for a honest wage. Sometime before this Dmtri’s father died. His mother did receive a pension for educator’s family, 1000 rubbles, hardly enough for a large families like Maria’s.

He had many influences for his love of sciences. One was his sister’s, Olga, husband who was banished to Siberia for his beliefs in the Dekabrist’s group which is a group of literary men who headed a revolution in 1825. Another was the chemist of the factory and the glassblowers. Bessargin, Olga’s husband, taught Dmtri his up to date scientific theories and about basic chemistry. The glass blower, who’s name was Timofei, taught Dmtri the art behind glass blowing and about the beauty of art itself. Finally the chemists at the factory taught him the advanced workings of chemistry, along with reinforcing the chemistry already taught to him by his ssters husband Bessargin. These influences are one of the reasons that Dmtri got interested in chemistry in the first places.
They also gave him a basic understand of a couple of subjects. The first subject is the interesting subject of art which is a good thing to know and the second being that of the sciences of the world.

At this time of life Dmtri had already moved around great distances. He had also had to live through his fathers death. This child did not let trivial things like these get in the way of his dreams of greatness. He was determined of being in the field of science and wouldn’t be stopped.



He was his mother’s favorite child and she taught him, he was destined for greatness maybe even to cure a great disease. So since she had the job at the factory she started saving every penny she had for years, in hopes that her youngest son could go to college and get an advanced education. I think she wanted him to want to go to college and not just for her to want him to go. As if fate Dmtri shared his mother’s dream for him but, as her luck usual did, it ran out and her family’s factory burnt down to the ground. Maria, with extreme displeasure, was forced to spend the money on the family’s survival. Dmtri and his mother knew there was only one way for him to go to college and that was if Dmtri won a scholarship.

There was one problem with this goal and that was that Dmtri only excelled in one subject, science. The reason for this was that he believed all the other subjects were useless; he wanted to be a scientist. His mother saw this problem and tried to bite it in the butt, so to say. She told him that he must excel in all subjects to get a scholarship and become a scientist. He did so want a higher education so he started to study and did so with a great intensity. When the time came for hi exams to get into a college he would be ready.


Dmtri first passed the exams for the University in Moscow Maria and her family got up to move right along with Dmtri. It didn’t take move than two days to get ready and move. In the time of this event, there was a lot of political unrest in Moscow this made them uneasy to let anyone from outside of Moscow in their University. This was only a setback for Dmtri and his family. So they started looking for the next place to try. Then they stopped in St. Petersburg, which is the town his father taught in. It just so happened that one of his father’s friends still taught there and he help get Dmtri into the school. He did this with ease. When he was accepted everyone in his family rejoiced for they finally did it. However shortly after his mother and his sister died of turburculosis.

After this he seemed to study harder and harder. After three years of progressive studying he was bedridden with what the doctors thought was tuberculosis His fellow students and teachers tried to help him as much as possible. They took him books and homework everyday. Once again his determination was undeniable and overcame extreme conditions. Even in the nature of his condition he kept up his studies almost to a perfect tee. At the end of the year he received a great honor, this would be the medal of excellence which was given out once a year for great accomplishments. I personal think he deserved more than just a medal.

At this time Mendeleev had some great things under his belt. But this is only the beginning of this story. Dmtri’s attitude though all this pain had not ever changed even after losing his entire family.

His tuberculosis was bad and getting worse. In the effort to extend his life as long as possible he would need to change his climate to that of a warmer one. This move took him to a town called Simferopol. There he became a chief master of science of a Gymnasium. At this time he was 21 years old. Near death he worked for the vision of Russia who he thought would become better from his research. Eventually he became strong again. When this happened he went to a doctor they found no sign of tuberculosis in his system.

In 1856, a student challenged his master theory “Research and theories on expansion of substances due to heat.” After this exeperice made him see his true calling of teaching and research. He devoted his life to his work and his students; His next love was that of his country and his fellow man. The love of his work lead to the formation of the periodic table.

In 1868 Dmtri wrote the textbook Principles of Chemistry. While he was classifying the elements he noticed that they had patterns which in turn lead to the periodic table. While this was going on there was other scientists trying to accomplish what Mendeleev had done on accident. There was John Newlands who put multiple elements in a single box, which was not widely accepted because it did not leave room for new elements to be put on the table. Then Lothar Meyer was the next, his table like Newlands did not leave room for New elements. As better understanding of atomic mass was developed Mendeleev updated his table. He actually did this very frequently.



In the year of 1859 he became the Minister of Public Instruction to travel for the studying the developments of distant lands. He studied density of gases with Regnoult in Paris and worked on the spectroscope with Kirchoffin Heidelberg. The studies of surface tension led to his theory of absolute boiling points. After awhile it become known as critical temperature.

After his studies he settled down in Russia for a respectable career of teaching in St. Petersburg. In 1863 he was named Professor of Chemistry at the school that his father taught at. Then in 1866 he became a professor of chemistry at the university and was made a doctor of science for his dissertation “On the Combinations of Water with Alcohol”. His research was beneficial to Russia. He loved to teach it was his biggest passion besides science itself. For a time Mendeleev was even a traveling teacher. He enjoyed drinking tea with peasants and discussing agriculture. On trains he used to travel many would gather round him to hear lecture and talk to him. Some said that when he lectured in the lecture hall that crowd of students would make it nearly impossible to get out of.

Mendeleev also lived in a time of political unrest. Though he thought science to be most important, that particular subject leaked into the realms of politics and social in equalities.





Eventually he resign from his position in the university because of a petition to the Minister of Education. His place in politics was one of the reasons for him getting forced to resign. Mendeleev’s final lecture got the police involved from fear of a riot breaking out.

On January 20, 1907 Mendeleev left this earth. He was 73 when he died. He died a peaceful death nonetheless. Some would say he drifted into the heavens on a chariot made of knowledge. That’s how peaceful it was believed to be. Mendeleev was a great scientist and will be forever missed.

Bibliography
Books
1. D. Abbot , ed. “Mendeleev, Dimtri Ivanovich”, The Biographical Dictionary of Scientist, Peter Bedrick Books, New York, 1986.
2. A.J. hide, The Development of Modern Chemistry, Harper & Row , New York, 1964, pp.243-256
3. G.B. Kauffman, “ Mendeleev, Dimitri Invanovich” , The Electronic Encyclopedia, Grolier, New York, 1988
Websites
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Mendeleev
2. http://www.chemistry.co.nz/mendeleev.htm