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Jöns Jacob Berzelius was a Swedish chemist. He worked out the modern technique of chemical formula notation, and is considered a father of modern chemistry.

The most notable of Berzelius's contributions to chemistry was his development of a rational system of atomic symbols. Around 1810 Berzelius was working to confirm John Dalton's atomic theory as well as Proust's law showing that separate elements always combined in whole-number proportions. At the same time, he was also compiling the new Swedish Pharmacopoeia. While working on these three projects, Berzelius came to the conclusion that the existing system of denoting elements and compounds was a hindrance. In establishing his own atomic symbols, he stated that "it is easier to write an abbreviated word than to draw a figure which has little analogy with words" (Jaffe 108). Instead of using obscure symbols like circles with arrows extending from their sides, or collections of dots arranged in a specific pattern, Berzelius opted to use the first letter of the Latin name for each element as its symbol.

Berzelius decided that the symbol would be the first two letters of the name.Even though his atomic symbols were introduced in 1814, it was quite a few years before Berzelius's symbols were adopted by the chemistry community. But once accepted, they became the new international language of chemistry.

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