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Torbern Bergman

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Torbern Bergman
Portrait byUlrika Pasch
Born
Torbern Olof Bergman

(1735-03-20)20 March 1735
Katrineberg, Låstad parish,Sweden
Died8 July 1784(1784-07-08)(aged 49)
Medevi,Sweden
NationalitySwedish
Alma materUniversity of Uppsala
Known forChemical affinity tables
SpouseMargareta Catharina Trast
Scientific career
FieldsChemistandmineralogist
InstitutionsUniversity of Uppsala
Doctoral advisorBengt Ferrner
Doctoral studentsJohann Afzelius

Torbern Olof Bergman(KVO) (20 March 1735 – 8 July 1784) was a Swedishchemistandmineralogistnoted for his 1775Dissertation on Elective Attractions,containing the largestchemical affinitytables ever published. Bergman was the first chemist to use the A, B, C, etc., system of notation forchemical species.

Early life and education

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Torbern was born on 20 March 1735, the son of Barthold Bergman and Sara Hägg. He enrolled at theUniversity of Uppsalaat age 17. His father wished him to read either law ordivinity,while he himself was anxious to studymathematicsandnatural science;in the effort to please both himself and his father, he overworked himself and harmed his health. During a period of enforced abstinence from study, he amused himself with fieldbotanyandentomology.He was able to sendLinnaeusspecimens of several new kinds of insects, and in 1756 he succeeded in proving that, contrary to the opinion of that naturalist, the so-calledCoccus aquaticuswas really the ovum of a kind ofleech.[1]He returned to the university in 1758, and received his PhD in that year.

Career

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Alchemical symbolsin Bergman's 1775Dissertation on Elective Affinities

Bergman lectured at the University of Uppsala onphysicsand mathematics, publishing papers on therainbow,theaurora,thepyroelectricphenomena oftourmaline.[1]Upon the resignation of the celebratedJohan Wallerius,Bergman was a candidate for the professorship ofchemistryandmineralogy.His competitors charged him with ignorance of the subject, because he had never written on it. To refute them, he shut himself up for some time in a laboratory, and prepared a treatise on the manufacture ofalum,which became a standard work. Thanks to the influence ofGustav III,then crown prince and chancellor of the university, he was appointed a professor of chemistry, and remained at this position for the rest of his life.[1]

Bergman greatly contributed to the advancement ofquantitative analysis,and he developed a mineral classification scheme based on chemical characteristics and appearance. He is noted for his research on the chemistry of metals, especiallybismuthandnickel.

In 1764, Bergman was elected a member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences.In April 1765 he was elected aFellow of the Royal Societyof London.[2]In 1773 he was elected a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[3]In March 1782, he was elected Foreign Associate of theFrench Academy of Sciences.[4]

In 1771, six years after he first discovered carbonated water and four years afterJoseph Priestleyfirst created artificiallycarbonated water,Bergman perfected a process to make carbonated water from chalk by the action ofsulphuric acid.He is also noted for his sponsorship ofCarl Wilhelm Scheele,whom some deem to be Bergman's "greatest discovery". The translation into English of his book Physical and Chemical Essays was read widely and regarded as the first systematic method of chemical analysis.[5]

Personal life

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In 1771, Bergman married Margareta Catharina Trast.

Legacy

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In Bergman's honour, the uranium mineraltorberniteand the lunar craterBergmanboth bear his name.

Works

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Opuscula physica et chemica,1779
  • Physick Beskrifning Ofver Jordklotet.1766.
  • Opuscula physica et chemica(in Latin). Vol. 1. Stockholm: Magnus Swederus. 1779.
  • Bergman, Torbern (1775).A Dissertation on Elective Attractions.
  • Essays, Physical and Chemical.1779–1781.
  • Historiae chemiae medium seu obscurum aevum(in Italian). Firenze: Giuseppe Tofani. 1782.
  • Tekniska Museet

Notes

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  1. ^abcChisholm 1911.
  2. ^"Library and Archive Catalog".Royal Society.Retrieved13 December2010.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^"APS Member History".
  4. ^Membres de l'académie du passé
  5. ^Hamlin, Christopher. (1990) 'A Science of Impurity, water analysis in nineteenth century Britain', University of California Press

References

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Further reading

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  • Mostrom, Birgitta. (1957).Torbern Bergman: a bibliography of his works.Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. Includes over 300 items, including translations printed up to 1956.
  • Schufle, J.A. (1985).Torbern Bergman: a man before his time.Lawrence, Kan.: Coronado Press.
  • Smeaton, W.A. (1970). "Bergman, Torbern Olaf".Dictionary of Scientific Biography.Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.ISBN0-684-10114-9.
  • Johannes Uray, Chemische Theorie und mineralogische Klassifikationssysteme von der chemischen Revolution bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. In: Berhard Hubmann, Elmar Schübl, Johannes Seidl (eds.),Die Anfänge geologischer Forschung in Österreich.Beiträge zur Tagung „10 Jahre Arbeitsgruppe Geschichte der Erdwissenschaften Österreichs "von 24. bis 26. April 2009 in Graz. Graz 2010, S 107–125.
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