Brauner, Bohuslav 138

Strbanova, S. (2003), Brauner, Bohuslav, in D. Hoffmann, H. Laitko, S. Miiller-Ville and Use Jahn, ed., Lexikon der bedeutenden Naturwissenschaftler 1. Band, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg-Berlin, 249-251. 

Figure 6.3 Brauner s draft letter to Mendeleev of February 1881 the page where Brauner speaks about the Russophilia of his family. PNP, Brauner Bohuslav, Personal Collection, Correspondence.

Brauner, O rozvoji periodicke soustavy 240. Highlighted by Brauner. It is useful to mention that Brauner was in close friendly and professional relation with Richards, as evidenced by the letter of 1911, where Richards thanks Brauner for his support in the matter of the Nobel Prize My dear friend, amindeed greatly honoured thatyou should continue to propose me for the Nobel Prize. Thatyou in particular, who understand better than anyone else the object and value of my work on atomic wei ts, should wish to propose me, gives me especial pleasure. (Richards to Brauner, January 5,1911, PNP Brauner Bohuslav, Personal Collection, Correspondence.)... 

J. Heyrovsky, Collection Czcahodov. Chem. Communications Dmitri Mendeleev and Bohuslav Branner in Prague, 1900. The latter was a professor of chemistry at the Bohemian University of Prague. He wrote a charming biographical sketch of his friend, Mendeleev, who once had the portraits of Lecoq de Boisbaudran, Nilson, Winkler, and Brauner framed together because they had contributed most toward the development of his periodic system (40). 

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was bom in Tobolsk in western Siberia on February 8, 1834. He was of Russian and Mongolian descent, and was the youngest child in a very large family. Some biographers mention seventeen children, but Mendeleev s personal friend Dr. Bohuslav Brauner stated that there were fourteen (37). 

Brauner, B., D. I. Mendeleev as reflected in his friendship to Prof Bohuslav... 

Marignac, Lecoq de Boisbaudran, Cleve, and Bohuslav Brauner all believed didymium to be a mixture of elements, but none of them were able to make the difficult separation (49). In 1882 Professor Brauner of the University of Prague examined some of his didymia fractions with the spectroscope and found a group of absorption bands in the blue region (A=449-443) and another in the yellow (A.=590-568) (53, 66)." These two groups of bands are now known to belong to two earths, praseodymia and neodymia, respectively, which Baron Auer von Welsbach obtained in 1885 by splitting didymia (3, 30, 32, 58). 

Bohuslav Brauner, 1855-1935 Professoi of chemistry at the Bohemian University of Prague He made brilliant contributions to analytical chemistry, the determination of atomic weights, and the chemistry of the rare earths In 1902 he predicted the existence of element 61, now known as promethium... 

The following literal translation of a postcard from Professor Bohuslav Brauner to Dr. Max Speter is published by kind permission of Dr. Speter. It was written in reply to a question as to whether or not Brauner and Auer von Welsbach were students under Mendeleev. Dr. Brauner was about seventy-eight years old when he wrote this card. 

The Czech chemist Bohuslav Brauner (1855-1935) (Figure 8) read Mendeleev s 1871 paper about six years later (Brauner, 1930 Druce, 1944). It made such an impression on him that he decided to refocus his experimental research on finding a solution for the question of the position of the rare earths in the periodic system. Brauner became the main defender of the periodic system in late nineteenth century. His rare-earth research has been of great importance in the further resolution of the so-called "rare-earth crisis," i.e., the problematic accommodation of the rare earths in the periodic system. It was especially Mendeleev s change of the atomic weights that had drawn Brauner s attention. It appears that although Brauner doubted the homogeneity (read elementarity) of... 

FIGURE 8 Bohuslav Brauner (1855-1935). Photo and permission from Edgar Fahs Smith Collection. 

Bohuslav Brauner had approached the rare-earth crisis from a fradifional chemical poinf of view. Bofh the search for higher valencies and complicated atomic weight determinations had been central to his research during the last quarter of fhe nineteenfh century, but neither of fhese methodologies allowed to prove the validity of the homologous accommodation. Brauner s adherence to the Mendeleev method had led him to a... 

Druce, G., 1944. Two Czech Chemists. Bohuslav Brauner (1855-1935) Frantisek Wald (1861-1930). The New Europe Publishing Company Limited, London. 

The name comes from the Greek mythological figure Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. The existence of element 61 was predicted in 1902 by Bohuslav Brauner, who extended the periodic table downward after lanthanum. He suggested that there would be an element between neodymium and samarium. Attempts to find the element proved to be inconclusive until... 

The method evolved by Moseley (1887 to 1915) of determining the atomic number enabled chemists to ascertain, as has already been seen, the maximum number of elements that can exist in serial order between any two selected ones. As the atomic numbers of lanthanum and lutecium are 57 and 71, it is clear that it is possible for 13 elements to exist of atomic numbers between these. Now europium was the twelfth to be discovered, but no element corresponding to 61 had been recorded. This should lie between neodymium (60) and samarium (62), and as early as 1902 Bohuslav Brauner had predicted its existence. In 1926 Hopkins, of Illinois, with his collaborators Harris and Yntema, announced the discovery of a new element in the neodymium extracted from monazite sand, the lines of the X-ray spectrum agreeing with those expected for element 61. He called it Illinium. 

Aston FW, Baxter GP, Bohuslav Brauner A, Debieme A, Leduc TW, Richards FS, Urbain G (1923) Report of the hitemational Committee on Chemical Elements. J Am Chem Soc 45 867-874... 

Mendeleev said, more than elsewhere in the system of elements, that new invesligatiOTis are to be desired and for which the periodic law provides guidance. About 6 years later, the yoimg Czechoslovakian chemist, Bohuslav Brauner, discovered Mendeleev s wonderful communication . It made such a profound impressimi on him that he fixed his life s aim at that very moment it was the experimental research of the solution of the following problems What is the position of the so called rare elements and especially those of the rare earths in Mendeleev s system Brauner would become the main defender of the periodic system in the late nineteenth century, and his rare-earth research became of the utmost importance for the further resolution of the rare-earth crisis. But that is another story. ... 

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