Prof Friedrich Stromeyer FRS(For) FRSE (2 August 1776 – 18 August 1835) was a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

. He was the discoverer of

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...

. From 1982 a Friedrich Stromeyer Prize has been awarded for chemical achievement in Germany.

Life

He was born in Göttingen on 2 August 1776 the eldest son of Dr Ernerst Johann Friedrich Stromeyer, professor of medicine at Göttingen University, and his wife, Marie Magdalena Johanne von Blum. Stromeyer studied Chemistry and Medicine at Göttingen and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and received an MD degree from the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

in 1800, studying under Johann Friedrich Gmelin and

Louis Nicolas Vauquelin Prof. Louis Nicolas Vauquelin FRS(For) HFRSE (16 May 1763 – 14 November 1829) was a French pharmacist and chemist. He was the discoverer of both chromium and beryllium. Early life Vauquelin was born at Saint-André-d'Hébertot in Normandy, F ...

. He was then a professor at the university, and also served as an inspector of apothecaries. His students included

Robert Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bu ...

. In 1817, whilst studying compounds of

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

carbonate, Stromeyer discovered the element

. Cadmium is a common impurity of

compounds, though often found only in minute quantities. He was also the first to recommend starch as a reagent for free iodine and he studied chemistry of arsine and bismuthate salts. In 1819 he was the first scientist to describe the mineral

eudialyte Eudialyte, whose name derives from the Greek phrase , , meaning "well decomposable", is a somewhat rare, nine member ring cyclosilicate mineral, which forms in alkaline igneous rocks, such as nepheline syenites. Its name alludes to its ready ...

. In 1826 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Edward Turner. As his fellowship was Ordinary (rather than Foreign or Honorary) this means he was physically present in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

at that time. The following year he was elected a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 1832 the mineral stromeyerite was named in his honour by mineralogist François Sulpice Beudant. He died in Göttingen on 18 August 1835 aged 59.

References

* Lockemann, Georg; Oesper, Ralph E. ''Friedrich Stromeyer and the history of chemical laboratory instruction'', ''J. Chem. Educ.'' 1953, 30, pp. 202–204. * I. Asimov, ''Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology'' (2nd Ed.), Doubleday, 1982, pp. 276–277. * M.E. Weeks, ''Discovery of the Elements'' (7th Ed.), Leicester, H. M., Ed., ''J. Chem. Educ.,'' 1968, pp. 502–508. * J. R. Partington, ''A History of Chemistry,'' Macmillan, 1962, ''vol. 3'', pp. 659–660. * ''Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte,'' Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1962, vol. 5, p. 566.

External links

* 1776 births 1835 deaths 19th-century German chemists Discoverers of chemical elements University of Göttingen alumni Foreign Members of the Royal Society Cadmium {{Germany-chemist-stub