Deville, Henri-Etienne Sainte-Claire

Toluene is a clear, flammable, aromatic hydrocarbon liquid with a smell similar to benzene. It is also called methylbenzene, indicating that a methyl group has been added to one of benzenes carbon atoms. Toluene was first isolated by Pierre-Joseph Pelletier (1788—1842) and Philippe Walter (1810—1847) in 1837. The name toluene comes from the South American tree Toluifera balsamum. Henri-Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville (1818—1881) isolated toluene from the tree s gum, Tolu balsam, in 1841. 

Apr. 10,1863, Thoury-Harcourt, France - May 9,1914, near Antibes, on the sea) Already as a high-school student he started to be interested in discoveries. He was fascinated by the book of Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville (1818-1881) about aluminum, and decided that he would produce aluminum by electrical means at a reasonable price. He entered the Ecole des Mines, Paris in 1882 where he began working on the electrolysis of aluminum compounds. In 1886 - simultaneously with... 

Not until 1855 did a French chemist, Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville (1818-81), work out an adequate method for preparing reasonably pure aluminum in moderate quantities. Even then, it was far more expensive than steel, so that it was used for ostentation, as, for instance, for the rattle of Napoleon Ill s infant son, or the cap at the top of the Washington Monument. 

In 1854 Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville prepared silicon by electrolysis in coimection with his pioneer work with aluminum. He used a fused electrolyte of impure sodium aluminum chloride. The aluminum metal, obtained at the cathode, contained 10% silicon. When dissolved in add, bright silicon laminae stayed undissolved. It is interesting to note that Deville expressed the opinion that the element silicon is not a real metal. 

Deville, Henri-Etienne Saint-Claire, 61-62 Dobereiner, Johann W., 62 Duisberg, Carl, 87, 223 Dumas, Jean-Baptiste Andre, 5... 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ ]

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