DMITRI IVANOVICH
MENDELEYEV
Mendeleyev,
the great Russian scientist, was born in Tobolsk in1834. At the age of 16 he
entered the Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg. He graduated from the
Institute in 1855. In 1867 he became professor of Chemistry at the Chair of
General Chemistry at the St. Petersburg University, the leading University of
the country. During the summer Mendeleyev worked hard at his lectures. He read
all his notes. He made those notes during years of study and investigation. But
the more Mendeleyev worked the harder his task seemed to him.
In
autumn he began his course of lectures came to listen to him. Besides this
course of lectures Mendeleyev began to work on a new book. He called it
“Principles of Chemistry ”. By that time сhemists knew 63
different elements. Chemists knew many of their properties but there was not
general system. Mendeleyev searched for a general law. He thought there must be
some fundamental property characteristic of an element. After many experiments
he found that that property is the atomic weight. That’s how in the spring of
1869 he discovered the Periodic System. All the chemical elements fell into a
natural order. There were some blanks in the Table at that time, but Mendeleyev
described the properties of some of the undiscovered elements. Mendeleyev not
only discovered the Periodic Law but used it for further development of
science. Up to the present time scientists use Mendeleyev’s Periodic Table in
their scientific work.
Words:
Scientist – учёный, the Chair of General Chemistry – кафедра общей химии, notes – записи, investigation – исследование, to seem – казаться , course – курс, to be a success – иметь успех, property – свойство, to search – искать, исследовать, weight – вес, to discover – открывать, order – порядок, blank – пустой пропуск, further – дальнейший.