The Pyrolusite Chemistry Clears Up

Professor Torbern Bergman in Uppsala was skeptical of Pott s presumption that pyrolusite had something in common with alum. He therefore requested Scheele to set about investigating the mineral pyrolusite. 

Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786) was bom in Stralsund in present-day Germany, then in Swedish Pomerania, where his father was a brewer. Scheele is looked upon as one of the greatest chemists of all time. As an experimentalist it is difficult to find his equal. Who taught and supervised him Which university had the honor of sorting out this genius Where did he prepare his doctoral thesis and where did he become professor  

Scheele s life is remarkable. When - at the age of 33 - he was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, he had not taken any university degree at aU. His title was pharmacice studiosus, student of pharmacology . Two years later, in 1777, Scheele obtained his sole university degree as a pharmacist. He was then already a chemist with a worldwide reputation and the examination day took the form of a homage to Carl Wilhelm Scheele from the Collegium medicum. 

From his youth he had worked in different pharmacies and studied chemistry the practical way . At the age of 15, Carl Wilhelm began to work in the Unicom pharmacy in Gothenburg, where he had a derk by the name of Grtinberg as instructor and teacher. From him he borrowed textbooks of chemistry and pharmacology and was allowed to make his own experiments 

Scheele did not have a long life, dying at the age of 46. Gertainly his health had suffered as a result of his discovery of both hydrofluoric acid and chio- 

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