What is Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev famous for? I immediately recall the periodic law discovered by him, which formed the basis of the periodic system of chemical elements. His "Discourse on the combination of alcohol with water", which laid the foundation for the myth of the invention of Russian vodka by scientists, may also come to mind. However, this is only a small part of the creator's genius heritage. It is difficult even to imagine all the scientific, philosophical and journalistic directions of this person's activity. The famous Russian chemist Lev Chugaev wrote: “Mendeleev was an unsurpassed chemist, a first-class physicist, a prolific researcher in the field of meteorology, hydrodynamics, geology, departments of chemical technology, a deep connoisseur of Russian industry, an original thinker in the field of the national economy, a state mind that was not destined to be, unfortunately, to become a statesman, but who understood the tasks and saw the future of Russia much better than the representatives of the official authorities. " Along with Albert Einstein, many call Mendeleev the greatest scientist of all time. What was Dmitry Ivanovich really like?
Everyone who knew the legendary chemist noted his amazing, extraordinary appearance: “Long shoulder-length silvery-fluffy hair, like a lion's mane, high forehead, large beard - all together made Mendeleev's head very expressive and beautiful. Concentratedly knitted eyebrows, heartfelt gaze of clear and clear blue eyes, a tall, broad-shouldered, slightly stooped figure gave the external appearance features of expressiveness and uniqueness, comparable to the mythical heroes of bygone years."
Dmitry Mendeleev was born on February 8, 1834 in the ancient city of Tobolsk in the family of Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev and Maria Dmitrievna Kornilyeva. He was the seventeenth, the last child. The mother of the future scientist came from a family of noble merchants who founded the first Tobolsk printing house in 1789. And his father graduated from the St. Petersburg Pedagogical Institute and worked as the director of the local classical gymnasium. In the year Dmitry was born, his father's vision deteriorated sharply, he had to leave the service, and all the worries fell on Maria Dmitrievna, who, after the whole family moved to the village of Aremzyanskoye, took on the role of manager of a glass factory owned by her brother, which produced dishes for pharmacists.
In 1841 Dmitry entered the gymnasium. Surprisingly, the future star studied rather poorly. Of all the subjects he liked only physics and mathematics. Aversion to classical education remained with Mendeleev for the rest of his life. In 1847, Ivan Pavlovich died, and his mother and children moved to Moscow. Despite persistent attempts, young Dmitry Ivanovich was not allowed to enter Moscow University. Graduates of the gymnasium, according to the rules of those years, were allowed to go to universities only in their districts, and the Tobolsk gymnasium belonged to the Kazan district. Only after three years of trouble did Mendeleev manage to get into the physics and mathematics faculty of the Main Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg.
The atmosphere of this closed educational institution, thanks to the small number of students and the extremely caring attitude towards them, as well as their close relationship with the professors, gave the broadest opportunities for the development of individual inclinations. The best scientific minds of that time, outstanding teachers who were able to instill a deep interest in science in the souls of their listeners, taught here. Mathematics Mendeleev was taught by Mikhail Ostrogradsky, physics - by Emiliy Lenz, zoology - by Fyodor Brandt, and chemistry - by Alexander Voskresensky. It was chemistry that Dmitry Ivanovich loved most of all at the institute. It is also worth noting that after the first year of study, the future scientist discovered health problems, in particular, he was regularly bleeding from his throat. Doctors diagnosed the disease as an open form of tuberculosis and announced to the young man that his days were numbered. However, all this did not prevent Mendeleev from graduating from the department of natural sciences with a gold medal in 1855.
After graduating from the institute, Dmitry Ivanovich went to places with a milder climate. For some time he worked in the Crimea, then in Odessa, and after defending his master's thesis he returned to the Northern capital at St. Petersburg University. On the recommendation of the "grandfather of Russian chemistry" Alexander Voskresensky, Mendeleev went on a trip abroad in 1859. During it, he visited Italy and France. After visiting Germany, he decided to live in this country for a while. I chose the city of Heidelberg as my place of residence, where famous chemists worked, and at the same time there was a large colony of Russians.
The short work of Dmitry Ivanovich in a new place showed that the famous Bunsen laboratory does not have the instruments he needed, the scales are "far from good enough," and "all the interests of scientists are, alas, school ones." Mendeleev, having independently acquired all the instruments he needed in Germany and France, organized his own home laboratory. In it, he investigated capillarity, discovered the absolute boiling point (critical temperature), and proved that steam heated to the absolute boiling point cannot be converted into a liquid by any increase in pressure. Also in Heidelberg, Dmitry Ivanovich had an affair with a local actress Agnes Voigtman, as a result of which a German woman became pregnant. Subsequently, the scientist sent money to his daughter who was born until she grew up and got married.
In 1861 Dmitry Ivanovich returned to his native St. Petersburg University, got a job at the Department of Organic Chemistry and wrote the famous textbook "Organic Chemistry". In 1862 Mendeleev married Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva. It is known that for a long time his elder sister Olga persuaded him to marry. At the same time, the second edition of Organic Chemistry was published, and its twenty-eight-year-old author was awarded a “Demidov Prize” of 1,000 rubles, which he spent on his honeymoon across Europe. In 1865, the scientist defended his doctoral dissertation on the combination of alcohol with water, setting out his own theory of solutions. His measurements formed the basis of alcoholimetry in Russia, Germany, Holland and Austria.
Soon after the birth of his son Vladimir (a future graduate of the Marine Corps), Dmitry Ivanovich acquired a small estate Boblovo near Klin. All his further life, starting from 1866, was inextricably linked with this place. He and his family went there in early spring and returned to Petersburg only in late autumn. The scientist respected and loved physical labor; in Boblov, Mendeleev had an exemplary stockyard with pedigree cattle, a stable, a dairy, a thresher, an experimental field on which the scientist conducted experiments with various fertilizers.
After defending his doctoral dissertation, Mendeleev headed the Department of General Chemistry at St. Petersburg University. He carried out intensive experiments, wrote the work "Fundamentals of Chemistry" that became popular, and gave absolutely amazing lectures, which always attracted full audiences. Dmitry Ivanovich's speech was not easy and smooth. He always started sluggishly, often stammered, choosing the right words, paused. His thoughts overtook the pace of speech, which resulted in a pile of phrases that were not always grammatically correct. Historian Vasily Cheshikhin recalled: "He said it was as if a bear walked right through the bushes." The scientist himself said: "People were bursting into my audience not for the sake of beautiful words, but for the sake of thoughts." In his words, passion, conviction, confidence, strict argumentation always sounded - with facts, logic, calculations, experiments, the results of analytical work. By the richness of the content, by the depth and pressure of thought, by the ability to capture and captivate the audience (there was a saying that even the walls sweat at Mendeleev's lectures), by the ability to inspire, convince listeners, turn them into like-minded people, by the accuracy and imagery of speech, it can be argued, that the brilliant scientist was a brilliant, albeit somewhat peculiar, orator. Attention was also drawn to the impressive and energetic gestures, as well as the timbre of the voice - a sonorous, pleasant to the ear baritone.
In 1869, at the age of thirty-five, at a meeting of the recently formed Russian Chemical Society, Mendeleev introduced his fellow chemists to his new article "Experience of a system of elements based on their atomic weight and chemical similarity." After its further revision in 1871, the famous article of the scientist "The Law for Chemical Elements" appeared - in it Dmitry Ivanovich presented the periodic system, in fact, in its modern form. In addition, he predicted the discovery of new elements, for which he left empty spaces in the table. Understanding the periodic dependence made it possible for Mendeleev to correct the atomic weights of eleven elements. The scientist not only predicted the presence of a number of not yet discovered elements, but also presented a detailed description of the properties of three of them, which, in his opinion, will be discovered earlier than others. Mendeleev's article was translated into German, and its reprints were sent to many famous European chemists. Alas, the Russian scientist, not only did not receive a competent opinion from them, but even an elementary answer. None of them appreciated the importance of perfect discovery. The attitude to the periodic law changed only in 1875, when Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered gallium, which in its properties was strikingly similar to one of the elements predicted by Mendeleev. And the "Fundamentals of Chemistry" written by him (which included, among other things, the periodic law) turned out to be a monumental work, in which for the first time in the form of a coherent scientific system a huge amount of factual material accumulated on the most diverse branches of chemistry was presented.
Mendeleev was a staunch enemy of everything mystical and could not help reacting to the passion for spiritualism that took possession of a part of Russian society in the seventies of the 19th century. Such foreign novelties as the summoning of spirits and "table-turning" with the participation of various kinds of mediums have become widespread in Russia, it is believed that spiritualism is "a bridge between the knowledge of physical phenomena to the comprehension of mental ones." At the suggestion of Dmitry Ivanovich in 1875, the Russian Physicochemical Society organized a commission for the study of "mediumistic" phenomena. The most famous foreign mediums (the Petty brothers, Mrs. Clair and some others) received an invitation to visit Russia in order to conduct their sessions in the presence of members of the commission, as well as supporters of the existence of the possibility of invoking spirits.
The most elementary precautions taken by the members of the commission during the seances dispelled the atmosphere of mystery, and the special manometric table developed by Mendeleev, which determines the pressure on him, led to the fact that the "spirits" flatly refused to communicate. The verdict of the commission at the end of the work read: "Spiritual phenomena arise from deliberate deception or unconscious movements, and the spiritualistic teaching is superstition …". Mendeleev himself wrote the following lines about this: “I decided to fight against spiritualism after Butlerov and Wagner began to preach this superstition … Professors had to act against the authority of the professor. The result was achieved: they gave up spiritualism. I don’t regret that I was busy”.
After the publication of "Fundamentals", chemistry in the life of the great scientist fades into the background, and his interests are shifted to other areas. In those years, kerosene was the only valuable oil product, which was used only for lighting. Mendeleev, on the other hand, focuses all his attention on oil. Back in 1863, Dmitry Ivanovich analyzed the Baku oil, gave valuable advice on its processing and transportation. In his opinion, the transportation of kerosene and oil by water in tankers and their pumping through pipelines could bring a reduction in transportation costs. In 1876, a scientist crossed the Atlantic Ocean in order to get acquainted with the organization of the oil business in the state of Pennsylvania and to visit an industrial exhibition in Philadelphia. Upon his return, he wrote with sadness: "The sole purpose of the masses was to make money … A new dawn is not visible on the other side of the ocean." Under the pressure of the Russian Technical Society, which supported all of Mendeleev's conclusions on the results of his trip to America, the system of ransom maintenance of oil fields, existing in Russia, was canceled, which led to the barbaric use of fields without the introduction of technical innovations and the installation of expensive equipment. And by 1891, the transportation of oil was organized in accordance with the requirements of Dmitry Ivanovich. At the same time, the cost of transportation fell three times.
In 1877, after Dmitry Ivanovich's return from the United States, his sister Ekaterina Kapustina moved to his university apartment with her children and granddaughter. Through them he met Anna Ivanovna Popova, a gifted Don Cossack woman, a student of the conservatory and school of drawing, the daughter of a retired Cossack colonel. It should be noted that his relationship with his wife by this time had become extremely tense. Dmitry Ivanovich felt alienated and lonely in the family. It is not surprising that he fell in love with this charming and cheerful artist, who was twenty-six years younger than the scientist. After almost five years of dating, Mendeleev finally decided to propose to Anna Ivanovna.
In 1880, Anna Ivanovna went to Italy for an internship, and Feozva Nikitichna, the scientist's wife, agreed to a divorce. Mendeleev and Popova decided that while the divorce case was dragging on, they would not show up in St. Petersburg together. Dmitry Ivanovich went to her in Italy, and then together they visited Spain, Cairo, for some time they lived on the Volga. Throughout the summer of 1881 Feozva Nikitichna was with her daughter in Boblov, and then moved into a new St. Petersburg apartment, which Mendeleev rented for them and completely furnished. In addition, he provided his ex-wife with a full university salary, and later built a dacha for her and his daughter on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. The divorce case ended with the punishment imposed on Dmitry Ivanovich by church repentance for a period of seven years, during which he was denied the right to marry. However, in January 1882 in Kronstadt, a priest of the Admiralty Church married Mendeleev to Anna Ivanovna, for which he was defrocked the very next day. The new marriage turned out to be much happier. Soon they had a daughter, Lyuba, who became Blok's wife in the future, two years later, a son, Ivan, and in 1886, twins Vasily and Maria.
The brilliant scientist loved his children deeply, sincerely and tenderly. He said: "I have experienced a lot in my life, but I know nothing better than children." A case in point - Dmitry Mendeleev became the first Russian chemist invited by the British Chemical Society to take part in the famous Faraday Readings. Dmitry Ivanovich was supposed to make a speech in London on May 23, 1889 on the topic "Periodic legality of chemical elements", however, having learned from the telegram that Vasily was ill, he immediately returned home.
N. A. Yaroshenko. D. I. Mendeleev. 1886. Oil
As one of the founders of the organization of the aeronautics department, Mendeleev helped in the work of A. F. Mozhaisky and K. E. Tsiolkovsky, with Makarov he worked on the development of the first domestic icebreaker, was engaged in the creation of aircraft and a submarine. Studies of the compressibility of gases allowed him to obtain the equation now known as "Mendeleev-Clapeyron", which formed the basis of modern gas dynamics. Dmitry Ivanovich paid great attention to the problems of the study of the Arctic Ocean, the improvement of navigation in the country's inland reservoirs. In 1878, Dmitry Ivanovich presented the work "On the resistance of liquids and aeronautics", in which he not only gave a systematic presentation of the existing views on the resistance of the environment, but also cited his own original ideas in this direction. Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky praised the book, calling it "the main guide for people involved in ballistics, aeronautics and shipbuilding." All income from the sale of the monograph Mendeleev donated to support the development of domestic research in aeronautics. In accordance with his ideas, a Marine Experimental Pool was built in St. Petersburg, in which new models of ships were tested. In this basin, Admiral S. O. Makarov, together with the future academician A. N. Krylov studied the issues of unsinkability of ships.
Dmitry Ivanovich himself took part in the development of air spaces. There is a known case when a scientist deliberately decided to take a step associated with a great risk to his life. In August 1887, he ascended in a hot air balloon to an altitude of about three kilometers in order to observe a solar eclipse. The weather was not flying, the scientist literally forced the pilot out of the basket, since the wet aircraft could not lift two. Mendeleev himself had no experience in balloon piloting. Saying goodbye to his friends, he said with a smile: "I'm not afraid to fly, I'm afraid that the men will take for the devil and beat them when they descend." Fortunately, the device, having been in the air for about two hours, landed safely.
In 1883, Mendeleev's attention switched to the study of aqueous solutions. In his work, he used all the accumulated experience, the latest instruments, measuring methods and mathematical techniques. In addition, he designed the tower of the astronomical observatory and dealt with the problems of measuring the temperatures of the upper atmosphere. In 1890, Dmitry Ivanovich had a conflict with the Minister of Education. After working at St. Petersburg University for twenty-seven years, Mendeleev left him, but his scientific activity did not end at all. Some time later, he invented a smokeless, pyrocolloid powder, superior in characteristics to the French, pyroxylin.
Since 1891, Dmitry Ivanovich, as the editor of the chemical-technical department, took an active part in the Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, in addition, he became the author of many articles that became the adornment of this publication. In order to determine the possibilities of increasing the industrial potential of Russia in 1899, Dmitry Ivanovich went to the Urals. There he collected data on the reserves of local ores, surveyed metallurgical plants. Mendeleev wrote about the results of the trip: "The faith in the future of Russia, which has always lived in me, has grown and strengthened after a close acquaintance with the Urals."
And in 1904 his "Cherished Thoughts" began to appear, concluding the scientist's will to posterity, judgments on various issues concerning the state, social, and economic life of Russia. Many of the thoughts set forth by Mendeleev look absolutely modern. For example, about patriotism: "Patriotism or love for the fatherland, some of today's extreme individualists are already trying to present it in a bad form, declaring that it is time to replace it with an aggregate of common love for all of humanity." Or about the country's defense: “Russia has fought many wars, but most of them were of a purely defensive nature. I express my confidence that, in front of Russia, despite our peaceful efforts, there will still be many defensive wars if it does not defend itself with the strongest army to the extent that it would be afraid to start a military conflict with it in the hope of seizing part of its territory. " On the economy: "… one combination of capital and tramps cannot cause or create a national good by itself."
In 1892, Dmitry Mendeleev headed the Depot of Exemplary Weights and Measures, which later became the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures. He laid the foundations for domestic scientific metrology - an extremely important direction in any scientific work, giving scientists confidence in the correctness of their results. He began this work with the creation of a domestic system of standards; the implementation of this project took Mendeleev seven years. Already in 1895, the accuracy of weighing in the Main Chamber reached a record high - thousandths of a milligram when weighing one kilogram. This meant that when weighing, for example, one million rubles (in gold coins), the error would be one tenth of a penny. In 1899, Mendeleev's son died from his first marriage - Vladimir, married to Varvara Lemokh, the daughter of a famous artist. The death of his beloved son was a terrible blow for the scientist.
By the end of the nineteenth century, Mendeleev held a unique position in Russian society as a versatile expert, advising the government on a variety of national economic and scientific problems. He was an expert in the field of aeronautics, smokeless powder, oil affairs, reform of higher education, customs tariffs, organization of metrological business in Russia. He was openly called a genius, but he really did not like it, he immediately began to get angry: “What kind of genius am I? He worked all his life, and that's how he became”. The scientist did not like ceremonies, fame, awards and orders (of which he had a great many). He liked talking with common people, he said: "I like to listen to peasant clever speeches." When he was thanked, he could run away shouting: "This is all nonsense, stop … Nonsense, nonsense!" I could not stand the address "Your Excellency", I warned visitors about this in advance, otherwise I could cut a person off mid-sentence. I asked to address myself only by name and patronymic. Also, the chemist did not recognize any ranks and ranks, many were shocked, others outraged. He bluntly stated: "I am not one of the present ones who softly lay." I hated it when in front of him they talked badly about someone or boasted of their "white bone".
Mendeleev also dressed very simply and modestly, at home he preferred a wide woolen jacket. He did not follow the fashion, relying on his tailor in everything. His moderation in food was noted. His friends believed that it was thanks to abstinence in drinking and food that he lived such a long life, despite the presence of hereditary tuberculosis. It is known that Dmitry Ivanovich loved tea, brewing it according to his own method. For colds, Menedeleev used the following self-medication method: he put on high fur boots, a fur-lined robe, and drank several glasses of strong and sweet tea. After that, he went to bed, driving out the ailment with a sweat. The scientist loved to take a steam bath in a bathhouse, but he rarely used a home bath. And after the bath he drank tea again and said that he "felt like a birthday boy."
At home, the scientist had two favorite activities - making suitcases and playing chess. Gluing suitcases, boxes, album cases, travel boxes and various boxes relaxed him after hard work. In this field, he achieved unsurpassed skill - glued cleanly, soundly, neatly. In old age, after the beginning of vision problems, he glued to the touch. By the way, some of the neighbors on the street knew Dmitry Ivanovich precisely as a suitcase master, and not a great chemist. He also played chess perfectly, rarely lost, partners could be delayed until five in the morning. His constant rivals were: a close friend, artist A. I. Kuindzhi, physicochemist V. A. Kistyakovsky and a chemist, student of Butlerov A. I. Gorbov. Unfortunately, smoking was another passion of the scientist. He smoked cigarettes or heavy cigarettes constantly, even when he was taking notes. Having an extraordinary appearance, in the thick puffs of tobacco smoke, he seemed to employees "an alchemist and a sorcerer who knows how to turn copper into gold."
All his life Dmitry Mendeleev worked with inspiration and passion, not sparing himself. Work, he said, brought him "fullness and joy of life." He concentrated all his knowledge and all his will on one thing and stubbornly walked towards the goal. Dmitry Ivanovich's closest assistants testified that he often fell asleep at the table with a feather in his hand. According to legend, the system of chemical elements appeared to Mendeleev in a dream, but it is known that when asked how he made the discovery, the scientist once grumpily replied: “I may have been thinking about it for twenty years, but you think: I was sitting, sitting and … ready".
In Mendeleev, in general, two principles were surprisingly combined - a tough disposition and kindness. Everyone who knew the scientist recognized his difficult nature, incredible outbursts of excitement, irascibility, bordering on anger. However, Dmitry Ivanovich easily walked away, built his relations with employees, based on their business qualities, appreciating the hard work and talents of people. And at the expense of swearing Mendeleev had his own excuse: “Do you want to be healthy? Swear yourself right and left. He who does not know how to swear, keeps everything to himself, will soon die. In addition, he was always ready to help people, no matter how: financially, by intercession or good advice. The initiative often came from him, Dmitry Ivanovich was an influential person in society, and his requests, as a rule, were successful.
Mendeleev died of pneumonia on January 20, 1907 in St. Petersburg at the seventy-second year of his life. The funeral of the scientist, arranged at the expense of the state, became a true national mourning. It is impossible to believe, but Dmitry Ivanovich was buried almost by the whole city, and his table was carried in front of a mourning column of many thousands.
After himself, Mendeleev left over 1,500 works. "I myself am amazed," said Dmitry Ivanovich, "what I have not done in my scientific life." The merits of the great scientist were recognized by all world powers. Mendeleev was an honorary member of practically all the scientific communities that existed at that time. His name enjoyed particular attention in Great Britain, where the chemist was awarded the Faraday, Copiley and Davy medals. It is impossible to list all of Mendeleev's students, they worked in various fields in accordance with the broadest scientific interests of Dmitry Ivanovich. His students can rightfully be considered the outstanding physiologist Ivan Sechenov, the great shipbuilder Alexei Krylov, chemist Dmitry Konovalov. Mendeleev's favorite student was Professor Cheltsov, head of the Marine Scientific and Technical Laboratory, to whom the French, without success, offered one million francs for the secret of smokeless gunpowder.
Monument to Dmitry Mendeleev and his periodic table, located on the wall of the All-Russian Research Institute of Metrology. Mendeleev in St. Petersburg
Mendeleev once said about himself: “I have not served one iota either to my wealth, or to brute force, or to capital. … I tried only to give a fruitful real business to my country, being confident that education, organization, politics and even defense of Russia are now inconceivable without the development of industry. "Mendeleev firmly believed in the future of Russia, constantly declared the need to develop its wealth. He made a huge amount of effort to defend the priority of Russian science in the discovery of the periodic law. And how Dmitry Ivanovich was worried and upset when, at the beginning of 1904, in the unleashed Russian-Japanese war, part of the Russian squadron was destroyed. He was not thinking about his seventieth birthday, but about the fate of the Fatherland: "If the British act and come to Kronstadt, then I will definitely go to fight." In his will to the children, he wrote: "By working, you can do everything for your loved ones and for yourself … Acquire the main wealth - the ability to conquer yourself."
