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Top 13 Unbelievable Facts about Dmitri Mendeleev


 

*Originally published by Crispus on June 2022 and Updated by Vanessa R on May 2023

Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian chemist who is famous for developing the Periodic Table. He formulated the Periodic law and popularized the periodic table through his correct predictions regarding the properties of yet-undiscovered elements.

He was born on February 8, 1834, in the village of Verkhnie Aremzyani, near Tobolsk, in the Russian province of Siber. His mother was Mariya Dmitriyevna Kornilova and his father was Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev.

Here are the top unbelievable facts about him.1. Dmitri Mendeleev’s Family was Tragic

Mendeleev was the youngest in a family of 17, of whom  3 did not make it to adulthood. His father Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev was a teacher of fine arts, politics, and philosophy.

Unfortunately for the family, Ivan went blind and lost his teaching position. His mother Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleeva restarted the family’s abandoned glass factory to support the family.

His father died when he was  13  years old and his mother’s glass factory was destroyed in a fire leading to a financial crisis in the family.

2. Dmitri Mendeleev attended the Main Pedagogical Institute in St Petersburg

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In his early years, Dmitri started his schooling at the Gymnasium in Tobolsk, where his father was a former teacher. In 1850, at the age of 16, the Mendeleev family moved to Saint Petersburg.

 Dmitri Mendeleev entered the Main Pedagogical Institute, where he graduated in 1855, where he taught for a short time before returning to do his Master’s. Mendeleev did some of his research at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He obtained his doctorate in 1865.

3. Dmitri Mendeleev Studied in Germany

Mendeleev had trained as both a teacher and an academic chemist. He worked  in the school before he won a scholarship to pursue his chemical research in Western Europe.

While in Germany, Mendeleev spent most of his time at Heidelberg University, where he worked and did chemical experimental research.

In 1860, Mendeleev attended the first-ever international chemistry conference, held in Karlsruhe, Germany. The conference’s main discussion was the need to standardize chemistry.

That conference Mendeleev attended in Germany, played a key role in his development of the periodic table, producing a standardized method for determining atomic weights. 

4. Dmitri Mendeleev Developed the Periodic table

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Dmitri Mendeleev is known as the father of the periodic table, an achievement he made while working as a professor at St Petersburg University in the 1960s. 

As he attempted to classify the elements according to their chemical properties, he noticed patterns that led him to postulate his periodic table; he claimed to have envisioned the complete arrangement of the elements in a dream.

By adding additional elements following this pattern, Mendeleev developed his extended version of the periodic table. On 6 March 1869, he made a formal presentation to the Russian Chemical Society.

Apart from the Periodic Table, other achievements of Mendeleev include important contributions to determining the nature of solutions and introducing the metric system in Russia.

5. Dmitri Mendeleev was a Nobel Prize  Nominee

In 1905, Mendeleev was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The following year the Nobel Committee for Chemistry recommended he be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1906.

The Chemistry Section of the Swedish Academy supported his nomination, due to his discovery of the chemical periodic table in 1868. 

However, some members of the academy opposed his nomination in favor of Henry Moissan.

Finally, Mendeleev lost to Moison after the majority of the academy members voted against him. 

6. Dmitri Mendeleev University bears his  Name

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D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia is a federal state budgetary higher educational institution in Moscow. It is the largest Russian center for education and research in the field of chemical technology.

 The university acquired its current name and status in 1992 in honor of Dmitri Mendeleev for his discovery of periodic systems in 1869. 

The university offers bachelor’s, specialists credentialmaster’s, and Ph.D. programs in various areas of chemistry.

7. Dmitri Mendeleev was Technically a Bigamist

Mendeleev became engaged to Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva on 4 April 1862, and they married on 27 April 1862 at Mykolaiv Engineering Institute‘s church in St Petersburg.

In 1876, Dmitri became obsessed with Anna Ivanova Popova and began courting her; he proposed to her and threatened to commit suicide if she refused to marry him.

Their marriage took place on 2nd April 1882 and his marriage to Leshcheva was officially ended one month later.  

The Russian Orthodox Church regulations state that one should stay for seven years after divorce before being allowed to marry again. 

8. Dmitri Mendeleev was a Scientific Writer

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Dmitri had written several scientific journals and books related to his work as a chemist and inventor. He also wrote other materials not related to chemistry.

After becoming a teacher in 1867, Mendeleev wrote Principles of Chemistry which became the definitive textbook in it’s time. 

Beginning in the 1870s, he published widely beyond chemistry, looking at aspects of Russian industries and technical issues in agricultural productivity.

9. Mendeleev crater on the moon bears his name 

Mendeleev is a large lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon, as seen from the Earth. The southern rim of this walled plain just crosses the lunar equator

The crater was named after the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1961 by AIU, in honor of his contribution to chemistry.

10. Dmitri Mendeleev Believed in Romanticized Deism

Mendeleev was raised as an Orthodox Christian, his mother encouraging him to search for divine and scientific truth. He later departed from the church and embraced a form of “romanticized deism“.

Romanticized deism, is a belief that God made it possible for people to discover natural laws through their God-given power to reason. 

11. He only trimmed his hair twice a year

It was well known that Dmitri Mendeleev had long hair and a beard that he only trimmed once a year. His beard and hair were both extremely long, with the beard allegedly reaching his chest and touching his waist. He had a reputation for being a guy of great discipline, and this included maintaining his looks.

12. He worked with many other scientists

 13 Unbelievable Facts about Dmitri Mendeleev

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Pioneering scientist Dmitry Mendeleev changed how scientists work. In addition to actively seeking data from his colleagues to support his own research, he was one of the first scientists to grasp the value of international collaboration and communication. The periodic table of elements, which is still in use today, was one of the ground-breaking scientific discoveries he made because of his forward-thinking methodology.

13. His childhood wasn’t that great

Dmitri was a member of a large family; the exact number of his siblings is not known, but he had more than ten. Practical arts, politics, and philosophy were subjects his father Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev taught.

Ivan lost his teaching position and, unfortunately for the family, got blind. To help the family, his mother Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleeva revived the family’s abandoned glass manufacturing facility. Dmitri’s mother’s glass production business was destroyed in a fire two years after his father passed away, leaving the family in financial ruin.

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