Marcellin Berthelot
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Pierre-Eugne- Marcellin Berthelot
(born Oct. 27, 1827, Paris, Francedied March 18, 1907, Paris) French chemist. The first professor of organic chemistry at the Collge de France (from 1865), he later also held high government offices, including that of foreign minister (189596). He did research in alcohols and carboxylic acids, the synthesis of hydrocarbons, and reaction rates, studied the mechanism of explosion, discovered many coal-tar derivatives, and wrote on the history of early chemistry. He was a pioneer in the use of chemical analysis as a tool of archaeology. His work helped break down the traditional division between organic and inorganic compounds. He opposed the then-current idea that a vital force is responsible for synthesis and was one of the first to prove that all chemical phenomena depend on physical forces that can be measured.
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Oxford Dictionary of Scientists:
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Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot
French chemist (1827–1907)
The Parisian-born son of a doctor, Berthelot studied medicine at the Collège de France but became interested in chemistry, becoming assistant to Antoine-Jérôme Balard in 1851. He was professor of organic chemistry at the Ecole Supérieure de Pharmacie (1859–76) and professor of chemistry at the Collège de France (1864–1907).
Alcohols were Berthelot's early research interest and he introduced the terms mono-, di-, and polyatomic alcohols. He showed that glycerin was a triatomic alcohol and in 1854 he synthesized fats from glycerin and fatty acids. He carried out a great deal of work on sugars, which he recognized as being both polyhydric alcohols and aldehydes.
Berthelot was one of the pioneers of organic synthesis. Before his time, organic chemists had mainly been concerned with degradations of natural products but Berthelot, in keeping with his logical systematic nature, began with the simplest molecules; his syntheses included methane, methanol, formic acid, ethanol, acetylene, benzene, naphthalene, and anthracene. His favored techniques were reduction using red-hot copper and the silent electric discharge. His methods were somewhat crude and the yields were low. Berthelot's work on organic synthesis was published as Chimie organique fondée sur la synthèse (1860).
Arising from his interest in esterification, Berthelot studied the kinetics of reversible reactions. In 1862, working with Péan de Saint Gilles, he produced an equation for the reaction velocity. This was incorrect but it inspired Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage to enunciate the law of mass action (1864).
In 1864 Berthelot turned to thermochemistry. In his book Mecanique chimique (1879) he introduced the terms ‘endothermic’ and ‘exothermic’ to describe reactions that respectively absorb and release heat. He also introduced the bomb calorimeter for the determination of heats of reaction and investigated the kinetics of explosions.
Berthelot's interest in agricultural chemistry was stimulated by his discovery of nitrogen uptake by plants in the presence of an electrical discharge. In 1883 he established an agricultural station at Meudon, where fundamental work on the nitrogen cycle was carried out. He looked forward to the day when poverty and squalor would be eradicated by the application of synthetic chemistry and new sources of energy.
Berthelot was a pioneer of historical studies in chemistry. In this he was influenced by his friend, the scholar Renan. In later life he became increasingly involved in affairs of state, mostly concerned with education, and in 1895–96 he served as foreign minister.
Oxford Companion to French Literature:
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Marcellin Berthelot
Berthelot, Marcellin (1827-1907). French scientist, professor of organic chemistry at the Collège de France, author of books on general philosophical topics [see Encyclopedias].
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Marcellin Berthelot
Berthelot, Pierre Eugène Marcelin (pyĕr ûzhĕn' märsəlăN' bĕrtəlō'), 1827-1907, French chemist. He was professor at the École Supérieure de Pharmacie (1859) and at the Collège de France from 1865. In 1900 he became a member of the French Academy. A founder of modern organic chemistry, he was one of the first to produce organic compounds synthetically (including the carbon compounds methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, benzene, and acetylene), playing a major role in dispelling the old theory of a vital force inherent in organic compounds. He also did valuable work in thermochemistry and in explosives. His writings include Chimie organique fondée sur la synthèse (1860) and Leçons sur la thermochimie (1897).
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Marcellin Berthelot
| Marcellin Berthelot | |
|---|---|
 Marcellin Berthelot |
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| Born | 25 October 1827 Paris |
| Died | 18 March 1907 (aged 79) |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields | Chemistry thermochemistry |
| Known for | Thomsen-Berthelot principle |
Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (25 October 1827 – 18 March 1907) was a French chemist and politician noted for the Thomsen-Berthelot principle of thermochemistry. He synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substances and disproved the theory of vitalism. He is considered as one of the greatest chemists of all time.
He was born in Paris, the son of a doctor. After doing well at school in history and philosophy, he became a scientist.
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Discoveries
The fundamental conception that underlay all Berthelot's chemical work was that all chemical phenomena depend on the action of physical forces which can be determined and measured. When he began his active career it was generally believed that, although some instances of the synthetic production of organic substances had been observed, on the whole organic chemistry remained an analytical science and could not become a constructive one, because the formation of the substances with which it deals required the intervention of vital activity in some shape. To this attitude he offered uncompromising opposition, and by the synthetic production of numerous hydrocarbons, natural fats, sugars and other bodies he proved that organic compounds can be formed by ordinary methods of chemical manipulation and obey the same principles as inorganic substances, thus exhibiting the "creative character in virtue of which chemistry actually realizes the abstract conceptions of its theories and classifications—a prerogative so far possessed neither by the natural nor by the historical sciences."
Publications
His investigations on the synthesis of organic compounds were published in numerous papers and books, including Chimie organique fondée sur la synthèse (1860) and Les Carbures d'hydrogène (1901). He stated that chemical phenomena are not governed by any peculiar laws special to themselves, but are explicable in terms of the general laws of mechanics that are in operation throughout the universe; and this view he developed, with the aid of thousands of experiments, in his Mécanique chimique (1878) and his Thermochimie (1897). This branch of study naturally conducted him to the investigation of explosives, and on the theoretical side led to the results published in his work Sur la force de la poudre et des matières explosives (1872), while in practical terms it enabled him to render important services to his country as president of the scientific defence committee during the siege of Paris in 1870–71 and subsequently as chief of the French explosives committee. He performed experiments to determine gas pressures during hydrogen explosions using a special chamber fitted with a piston, and was able to distinguish burning of mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen from true explosions.
During later life he researched and wrote books on the early history of chemistry such as Les Origines de l'alchimie (1885)[1] and Introduction à l'étude de la chimie des anciens et du moyen âge (1889),[2] He also translated various old Greek, Syriac and Arabic treatises on alchemy and chemistry: Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (1887–1888)[3] and La Chimie au moyen âge (1893).[4] He was the author of Science et philosophie (1886),[5] which contains a well-known letter to Renan on "La Science idéale et la science positive," of La Révolution chimique, Lavoisier (1890),[6] of Science et morale (1897),[7] and of numerous articles in La Grande Encyclopédie, which he helped to establish.
Family
He died suddenly, immediately after the death of his wife Sophie Niaudet (1837–1907), at Paris, and was buried with her in the Panthéon. He had six children:[8] Marcel André (1862–1939), Marie-Hélène (1863–1895), Camille (1864–1928), Daniel (1865–1927), Philippe (1866–1934), and René (1872–1960).
See also
References
- ^ Les origines de l'alchemie (Paris, G. Steinheil, 1885).
- ^ Introduction à l'étude de la chimie, des anciens et du moyen âge (Paris, G. Steinheil, 1889).
- ^ Collection des anciens alchimistes Grec. Volume 1, Volume 2-3 (Paris : G. Steinheil, 1887).
- ^ Histoire des sciences: La chimie au moyen âge (Imprimerie nationale, 1893).
- ^ Science et philosophie (Levy, 1886).
- ^ La révolution chimique: Lavoisier (Paris Germer-Baillière, 1890)
- ^ Science Et Morale (Levy, 1897).
- ^ Individus at mapage.noos.fr
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bertholet, Marcelin Pierre Eugene". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. http://www.archive.org/stream/encyclopaediabrit03chisrich#page/811/mode/1up.- Doremus, CG (April 1907). "Pierre Eugene Marcelin Berthelot". Science 25 (641): 592–595. doi:10.1126/science.25.641.592. PMID 17749176.
Further reading
- Crosland, M.P. (1970–80). "Berthelot, Pierre Eugène Marcelin". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 63–72. ISBN 0684101149.
- Graebe, O. (1908). "Marcelin Berthelot". Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft 41: 4805. doi:10.1002/cber.190804103193.
External links
- Berthelot at www.hh.schule.de
- Berthelot, Marcelin (1827-1907), chimiste et homme politique français at isimabomba.free.fr
- "Pierre-Eugène-Marcelin Berthelot" at encarta.msn.com (Archived 2009-11-01)
- AllRefer.com - Pierre EugEne Marcelin Berthelot (Chemistry, Biography) - Encyclopedia at reference.allrefer.com
- Works by Pierre Berthelot at Project Gutenberg
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by René Goblet |
Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts 1886–1887 |
Succeeded by Eugène Spuller |
| Preceded by Jean Casimir-Perier |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1895–1896 |
Succeeded by Léon Bourgeois |
| Cultural offices | ||
| Preceded by Joseph Bertrand |
Seat 40 Académie française 1900–1907 |
Succeeded by Francis Charmes |
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