Background

Johan Gadolin was born on June 5, 1760, in Turku, Finland. His father, Jacob, was professor of physics and theology at the Finnish University at Abo and later became bishop of Abo. His maternal grandfather, Johan Brovallius, was also professor of physics at Abo and a friend of Linnaeus.

Education

Johan began to study mathematics at the Royal Academy of Turku (Åbo Kungliga Akademi) when he was fifteen. Later he changed his major to chemistry, studying with Pehr Adrian Gadd, the first chair of chemistry at Åbo. In 1779 Gadolin moved to Uppsala University. In 1781, he published his dissertation On the analysis of iron, under the direction of Torbern Bergman.

Career

Upon Bergman’s death in 1784 Gadolin became a candidate for the chair of chemistry at Uppsala, but Johann Afzelius, adjunct at Uppsala, was selected. After having become an extraordinary professor at Åbo in 1785, Gadolin had sufficient time to travel in Europe and become well acquainted with Richard Kirwan, Adair Crawford, and Lorenz F. F. von Crell, to whose Chemische Annalen he later contributed frequently. When Gadd died in 1797, Gadolin became ordinary professor, post which he held until his retirement in 1822. The great fire of 1827 destroyed his extensive mineral collection and ended his scientific career. He retired to the country, where he died at the age of ninety-two.

As an educator, Gadolin was significant for opening his chemical laboratory to students, preceding by many years Liebig’s famous laboratory at Giessen. His Inleding till chemien was the first Swedish language textbook written in the spirit of the new combustion theory.

Gadolin’s chemical contributions cover a large area. By 1784 he had published two important papers on specific heat, and in 1791 he published one on the latent heat of steam. Having established the composition of Prussian blue, he made a significant contribution to analytical chemistry by suggesting the ferricyanide titration of ferrous iron. This volumetric analysis preceded Gay-Lussac’s classic work by forty years.

Best remembered for his studies in mineralogy, Gadolin in 1792-1793 analyzed a new black mineral (later named gadolinite) from Ytterby, Sweden, and discovered in it a new earth, yttria, later shown to contain several elements of the rare-earth series. In 1886 Jean Charles Marignac isolated a new rare-earth element and named it gadolinium, the first element named for a person.

Achievements

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  Johan Gadolin is considered the founder of Finnish chemistry research. He discovered a "new earth" containing the first rare-earth compound yttrium, which was later determined to be a chemical element. He was knighted and is registered under number 245 in the Finnish House of Nobility.

Works

More photos

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  • Systema Fossilium Analysibus Chemicis Examinatorum Secundum Partium Constitutivarum Rationes Ordinatorum 1825

Politics

Interested in politics, Gadolin was influential in bringing about the political separation of Finland from Sweden.

Views

Although Gadolin accepted the phlogiston theory early in his career, he attempted to understand Lavoisier’s ideas. In a paper published in 1788 he tried to define phlogiston and admitted that the French explanation of combustion was superior to some phlogiston theories, but for a long time he was not wholly converted. His lectures always made use of the new chemistry, and he eventually became the spokesman in Scandinavia for Lavoisier’s nomenclature and combustion theory, often encountering Berzelius, opposition. Despite his willingness to accept these new ideas, he never made use of the work of Dalton, Davy, or Gay-Lussac.

Membership

Gadolin was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Personality

Gadolin was fluent in Latin, Finnish, Russian, German, English and French in addition to his native Swedish.

Connections

Johan Gadolin married first, at age 35, Hedvig Tihleman, with whom he had nine children. After his wife’s death he married, at age 59, Ebba Palander.

Father:

Jakob Gadolin

Spouse:

Ebba Palander

Grandfather:

Johan Brovallius

late spouse:

Hedvig Tihleman

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography