A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N DJons Jakob Berzelius, Baron : 1779 - 1848
The Swedish chemist Baron Jons Jakob Berzelius, (b. Aug. 20, 1779, d. Aug. 7, 1848), was one of the dominant figures in chemistry during the first half of the 19th century. His textbook, his system of chemical symbols, his dualistic electrochemical theory, his yearly review of chemical progress (1821-48), and his compilation of the first reasonably accurate atomic weight table, made him the ultimate chemical authority of his times. He introduced the use of filter paper into analytical chemistry and discovered several elements, selenium (1818), silicon (about 1824), and thorium (1829). He introduced many terms used in chemistry today; his increasingly entrenched scientific conservatism in later life impeded progress, however. George B. Kauffman
The chain of events leading to television began in 1817, when a Swedish chemist named Jons Jakob Berzelius discovered the chemical element selenium. Later it was found that the amount of electrical current that selenium could carry depended on the amount of light that struck it. This property of certain conducting materials is called photoconductivity.
Jons Jakob Berzelius, Swedish chemist who was a disciple of Dalton. After Lavoisier, Berzelius is known as the father of chemistry. Berzelius developed the radical theory of chemical combination, which holds that reactions occur as stable groups of atoms called radicals are exchanged between molecules. He believed that salts are compounds of an acid and bases, and discovered that the anions in acids would be attracted to a positive electrode, whereas the cations in a base would be attracted to a negative electrode. Berzelius did not believe in the Vitalism Theory, but instead in a regulative force which produced organization of tissues in an organism.
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