Home > Martin Heinrich Klaproth

Klaproth was born at Wernigerode. During a large portion of his life he followed the profession of an apothecary. After acting as assistant in pharmacies at Quedlinburg, Hanover, Berlin and Gdansk successively he came to Berlin on the death of Valentin Rose the elder in 1771 as manager of his business, and in 1780 he started an establishment on his own account in the same city, where from 1782 he was pharmaceutical assessor of the Ober-Collegium Medicum. In 1787 he was appointed lecturer in chemistry to the Royal Artillery, and when the university was founded in 1810 he was selected to be the professor of chemistry. He died in Berlin. Klaproth was the leading chemist of his time in Germany.

An exact and conscientious worker, he did much to improve and systematize the processes of analytical chemistry and mineralogy, and his appreciation of the value of quantitative methods led him to become one of the earliest adherents of the Lavoisierian doctrines outside France. He was the first to discover uraniumUranium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol U and atomic number 92. A heavy, silvery-white, toxic, metallic , and naturally- radioactive element, uranium belongs to the actinide series and its isotope uranium-235 is used as the, zirconiumZirconium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Zr and atomic number 40. A lustrous gray-white, strong transition metal that resembles titanium, zirconium is obtained chiefly from zircon and is very corrosion resistant. Zirconium and titaniumscandium titanium vanadium Ti Zr Full table General Name, Symbol, NumberTitanium, Ti, 22 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 4, 4 , d Density, Hardness 4507 kg/m3, 6 Appearance Silvery metallic Atomic properties Atomic weight 47. 867 am, and to characterize them as distinct elements, though he did not obtain any of them in the pure metallic state; and he elucidated the composition of numerous substances till then imperfectly known, including compounds of the then newly recognized elements: telluriumTellurium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Te and atomic number 52. A brittle silver-white metalloid which looks like tin, tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. This element is primarily used in alloys and, strontiumStrontium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Sr and the atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white or yellowish metallic element that is highly reactive chemically. This metal turns yellow when, ceriumCerium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Ce and atomic number 58. Notable characteristics Cerium is a silvery metallic element, belonging to the lanthanide group. It is used in some rare-earth alloys. The oxidized form is use and chromiumvanadium chromium manganese Cr Mo Full table General Name, Symbol, Numberchromium, Cr, 24 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 6 (VIB), 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Atomic properties Atomic weight 51. 9961 amu Atomic radius (calc..

His papers, over 200 in number, were collected by himself in Beitrage zur chemischen Kenutniss der Mineralkorper (5 vols., 1795-1810) and Chemische Abhandlungen gemischten Inhalts (1815). He also published a Chemisches Wörterbuch (1807-1810), and edited a revised edition of F. A. C. Gren ’s Hand buch der Chemie (1806).

Initial text from a 1911 Encyclopaedia. Please update as needed.