V. A. Krotikov Leningrad University Leningrad, U.S.S.R.
The Mendeleev Archives and Museum of the Leningrad University
The Archives and hTuseum dedicated to the memory of Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, the great Russian ~cient~ist, is an institution founded almost fifty years ago. The museum was opened December 21, 1911, on the day when the Second Mendeleev Conference on pure and applied chemistry convened. Icor many years of his long and fruitful life D. I. Mendeleev kept close cont,act with the St. Petersburg U1iiversit.y. He studied t,here a t the Pedagogical Inst,itute, 1850-55, and became assistant professor and then professor of chemistry, 1857-90. During the years 1866-90 Mendeleev lived in a flat in the University building adjoining the chemical laboratory as did all the professors of chemistry. The Mendeleev Museum occupies those rooms in which he lived and worked. The St. Petersburg University acquired the furniture, his library, and part of his personal records. At first, all these things were placed in three rooms of his former flat.. In 1952, t,he Council of Minist,ers of the U.S.S.R. passed a special resolution "About Scient,ific Archives of D. I. Mendeleev." Since then, all his manuscripts (some photostat,^) and other archive documents referring t,o his life and scientific activities have been collected in t.he museum. Now they are exhibited in seven rooms (including his original work rooms). The Museum also has on its walls t.he originals of many port,raits and sculptures of Mendeleev made by Russian painters such as I. N. Kramskoy, K. A. Yaroshenko, and I. 0. Cinzburg. Portraits painted hy his wife are part.icularly intere~t~ing; one of these is reproduced here (Fig. 1). The first museum rooms contain memorabilia of Mendelcev's childhood, st.udent days, and early scient,ific activities. He was born in the small Siberian town of Tobolsk, and was the son of a school principal. Among his childhood impressions, those created by his visit,s t,o a nearby glass works managed by his mother must have influenced his later love for applied and natural sciences. Museum visitors can see from his school graduation certificate that, although his best ITO OR'S NOTE: Readers are snro to be puzeled by the spelling of Mendelcev'e namc. The old established form of transliteration into French and German was "Mendeleef"-note that Mendeleev himself wrote it this way on thc manuscript shown in Figure 3. The form adopted here is that consistently used in the modern trsnslitemtion of Russian by Chemical Abstracts and the Library of Congress. We are grateful far the assistance of Dr. M. HOSEH,of the Chemical Abstracts Washington office, in solving trsn~lationand transliteration problems. This is the fifth in the series being gathered for THIS JOURNAL by Dr. ~ L P E. H OESPER to give our readers who travel (really or vicariously) a. preview of some placos of notable scientific interest in other countries. See also: 3. CHEMEDUC.,34, 283,607 (1957); 35,300 (1958); and 36,231 (1959).
marks were in physics and mathematics (chemistry was not a separate subject then), the boy Mendeleev was not a superior pupil. At the Pedagogical Institute, where Mendeleev was able to study his favorite subjects only, he was a t once singled out among his fellow students. He graduated with a gold medal and won a rep~tat~ion of being a promising scientist. His first scient,ific work, "Chemische Analyse des Orthits aus Finland" (1854), was published while he was still a student. His graduation thesis, "Isomorphism in Connection with Other Relations of Crystal Structure to Composition," was first published in a Russian scientific magazine (Gornyi Zhurnal, 1855) and later as a separate volume.
Figure
I.
Portrait of D. I. Mendeleev,
pointed b y his wife.
At that time it was to teach wit,h equal thoroughness and details geology, mineralogy, biology, and chemistry parallel to physics and mathematics. It was no mere chance that Mendeleev chose mineralogical subjects for his works in chemistry, and there mas a period when he was on the verge of choosing biology as his principal subject. A well-preserved herbarium collected by him in the suburbs of St. Petersburg is exhibited at the museum along with some pages of his student notebooks showing numerous notes and drawings on botany and zoology. Through all his life Mendeleev displayed great interest concurrently for different branches of science. I n 1856, having defended his thesis, "Specific Volumes," Mendeleev was given the Master's Degree. It was the beginning of his independent scientific career. Even at this early period of his activities he went beyond the boundaries of chemistry. While in Heidelberg on his first scientific trip abroad, he did research on capillary properties of liquids. This work resulted in his discovery of the "Absolute Boiling Temperature" (1860), afterwards called "Critical Temperature." The carefully sealed samples of liquids Volume 37, Number 12, December 1960
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he investigated have been preserved and are on exhibit in the museum. Mendeleev's early scientific interests were varied: the first Russian organic chemistry manual (1861), questions of chemical technology (especially in the oil industry), and agricultural research. He wrote his doctoral thesis on his work with alcohol-water solutions (1865). Even in later years his interest in both petroleum and solution chemistry was strong. Periodic Law and "Principles"
I n 1867, two years after his first appointment as professor at St. Petersburg University, Mendeleev was elected chairman of the Department of Chemistry. That event proved one of the turning points in his life. He began delivering a general course of chemistry to the university students. When he started to prepare a chemistry manual for his students (the future "Principles of Chemistry"), he set forth the following basic task: to find a logical interconnection between the properties of the chemical elements and their compounds. The solving of that problem led to the discovery of the periodic law. When the visitor examines the exhibits at the museum, he can trace Mendeleev's gradual progress toward this discovery. Two manuscripts are of particular interest. The first one (Fig. 2) contains a large number of crossed-out symbols of chemical elements dotted on the margins and center of the sheet. One can see one of the first variants of the system of elements. The other manuscript (Fig. 3) is the iirst published formulation of the system. The manuscript is dated February 17 (old style), 1869. It was printed in 200 copies (150 copies in Russian, 50 in French), and it was sent to many distinguished chemists of that time. It is interesting to note that he changed the original title of that manuscript: "Classification of Elements," "Distribution of Elements" to "System of Elements" thus emphasizing the fact that his table had value as a generalization. This correction may be clearly seen on the photographic reproduction. The materials of the "Periodic Law" section also reveal the part Mendeleev's predecessors played in the discovery of the law and its subsequent history. Mendeleev particularly appreciated the works of J. B. Dumas and E. Lenssen. Among the exhibits there are some extracts from these authors' works made in Mendeleev's own handwriting. Further on there are examples of the activity of the so-called "Upholders of the Periodic Law" (as Mendeleev named them), such as P. E. Lecoq de Boisbandran, L. F. Nilson, C. A. Winkler, B. Brauner, and W. Ramsay. The iirst three discovered the chemical elements for which Mendeleev had predicted the properties with detailed specifications. B. Brauner correctly placed the rare earths in the periodic system. W. Ramsay discovered the inert gases and thus introduced the 0-group into the system. Mendeleev continued to work at revising his hook, "The Principles of Chemistry," for many years. There were eight editions in his lifetime, the eighth being published in 1906, just before his death. I n the book, he expressed his opinion on different issues of chemistry,
on theoretical concepts of other scientists in this field, and consistently developed the ideas he worked with most. "These 'Principles' are my favorite child," he used to say. "This book reflects my ideas, embodies my pedagogical experience, and the thoughts dear to me." "The Principles of Chemistry" can be called a kind of scientific diary. Among the personal copies of his works in the Museum there are copies of all editions of "The Principles." Many of these personal working copies contain remarks and observations on margins and on specially inserted sheets of paper. These books are of great historical and scientific value. Another special section of the Museum is devoted to Mendeleev's research on the chemical aspects of the solution process. Also representative examples of his work on equations of state for gases, meteorology, shipbuilding, industrial economics, agriculture, etc., are displayed. Other Mendeleev Memorabilia
Unfortunately, the university laboratory in which he worked has not been preserved. The Museum displays only a small part of his laboratory equipment: a two-story balance for weighing gases, a short-beamed balance of his own construction, a cathetometer, a simple laboratory balance, and sets of crystal, porcelain, and metal weights. There is another exhibit of the Museum furniturehis writing desk. Standing at this desk he used to make notes in his laboratory journals. The altimeter invented by Mendeleev and intended for geodetic and topographic operations attracts everyone's attention. This device was demonstrated at the World Exhibition in Philadelphia and was allotted an honorary diploma by the jury of the exhibition. The principle of the mechanism of the altimeter is not out of date even yet. Mendeleev's study is the last room of the display. On entering this room the visitor sees the usual surroundings of the great scientist's regular work. Everyth'mg reminds the visitor of his personality. The writing table which stands almost in the center of the study is notable for its peculiar arrangement. It is made after the design of its former owner. There is also an old-fashioned camera produced in England according to his drawings. Bookcases and shelves line the walls of the study. The library contains 16,000 titles arranged according to a special system worked out by Mendeleev himself. The books bear many of his own marginal notes and therefore they form an integral and valuable part of the archives; A great many of these books bear dedicatory inscriptions made by the most prominent scientists of the world. Fiftyseven volumes of Mendeleev's own works occupy a separate shelf. Numerous albums are of great interest for visitors. On the pages of these albums one can see photographs of the places which he visited. There are not only family photographs but also those connected with diierent events of his life as a scientist, such as press clippings, letters, telegrams, invitations, congratnlations, and other documents. Several albums are filled with reproductions of works of art and sculpture, annotated in his own handwriting. Art played an important part in Mendeleev's life. Volume 37, Number 12, December 1960
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Two other albums contain the diplomas received by him from the academies, scientific societies, and universities of many different countries of the world. Mendeleev received more than a hundred honorary degrees. It would he of a particular interest to the American reader to know that among all these diplomas there are seven from scientific institutions of the U.S.A., including the National Academy of Sciences. Mendeleev highly appreciated the appraisal of his works by American scientists. The great Russian scientist often stressed the mutual sympathy existing between the peoples of the U.S.A. and Russia. The most honored of the medals exhibited in the Museum showcases are the Davy Medal and Copley Medal of the British Royal Society, the medal of the French Academy of Aerostatics, and many others. The British Royal Society awarded Mendeleev its highest p r i z e the Faraday Medal, made of palladium-but its location is not known now. Research and Publication of the Archives
The Mendeleev Archives and Museum at the Leningrad State University prepares unpublished documents of the Archives for printing and investigates the insufficiently known facts of Mendeleev's life and activities and those of his students. The Mendeleev Archives contains over 14,000 items. Many documents have already been published. The most important of them are listed here1-'. In 1950, 1953, 1958, and 1959 annotated documents on the MENDELEEV, D. I., Novye materialy po istorii otkrytiya periodicheskogo zakona (New materials an the history of the discovery of the periodic law), Moscow-Leningrad, Academy of Sciences U.S.S.R., 1950, (contains 2 original papers by D. I. M. and one by B. M. Kedrov on the history of the Periodic Law); MENDELEEV, D. I., Nauchnyi arkhiv (Scientific documents), Moscow, Academy of Sciences U.S.S.R., 1953, vol. 1: Periodicheskii Znkon (Periodic law); KEDROV,B. M., Den' odnoga velikogo otkrytiya (Day of one great discovery), Moscow, Sotsekgiz, 1958; KEDROV,B. M., Filosofskii a n a h pervykh trudov D. I. Mendeleeva o periodicheskom zskone, 1869-71 (A philosophical analysis of D. I. Mendeleev's early vork on the Periodic Law, 1869-71), Moscow, Academy of Sciences U.S.S.R., 1959. ~MENDELEEV, D. I Sochineniya (Works), Leningrad, Khimteoret, 1934-1954, 25 vols., Academy of Sciences U.S.S.R. MLADENTSE~, M. N., AND TISHCHENRO,V. E., Dmitrii Ivanovich Mendeleev, ego ahian' i deyatel'nost (Dimitrii Ivanovich Mendeleev, his life and work), vol. 1, Leningrad, Academy of Sciences U.S.S.R. 1938.
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history of the discovery of the Periodic Law were published. I n 1934-54 there was published a 25-volume collection of Mendeleev's writings containing a number of works on various fields published for the first time. The first volume of Mendeleev's biography written by two students and close colleagues, M. N. Mladentsev and V. E. Tishchenko, was published in 1938. The book embraces the early period of Mendeleev's life and activities (1834-61) and includes a great number of archive documents. His autobiographical documents were published in separate editions in 1939 and 1951. I n various years much of Mendeleev's correspondence with Russian and foreign scientists has been published in Soviet learned periodicals, including letters by Cannizzaro, Wurtz, Sainte-Claire Deville, Marignac, Lecoq de Boisbaudran, Winkler, Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Ramsay, Ostwald, Dewar, Crookes, Nilson, Lothaz, Meyer, Roozeboom, and others. Work is still proceeding on discovering and preparing new material for print. The task is to find the numerous letters which must have been written by Mendeleev to the United States, England, Germany, France, and other countries and to get their originals, photo-copies, or microfilms. We appeal to the readers of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION, requesting them to let us know of anything connected with Mendeleev's autographs which they might come across in foreign collections. Besides the Mendeleev Museum of the Leningrad University there is another museum in Leningrad at All Union Institute of Metrology, formerly called "The Main Chamber of Measures and Weights." On leaving St. Petersburg University Mendeleev was appointed manager of this institution. The Mendeleev Metrology Museum covers the last period of his life and work. Most of the apparatus which he used carrying out his experiments during the last period of his life is exhibited in the second Mendeleev Museum, headed by Mendeleev's former secretary, A. 1'. Skvortsov. Leningrad University, Muzei-Arbhiv D . I. hlendeleeva, Arkhiv D. I. Mendeleeva (D. I. Mendeleev Archiv~s),vol. 1: Avbobiograficheskie matwialy, Shornik dokumentov (4utobiographical materials. Collection oi documents), Leningrad, 10Kt &""A.
$Uspekhi khimii, vol. 10, pp. 7 3 4 4 2 (1941), vol. 13, pp. 317-27 (1944), vol. 14, pp. 89-90 (1945), Priroda 1946, no. 5, pp. 76-81; Voprasy istorii estestvoznaniya. i tekhniki, 1957, no. 3, pp. li6-96.
