Lars Fredrik Nilson
Lars Fredrik Nilson (born May 27, 1840 in Skönberga , East Gotland , † May 14, 1899 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish chemist.
life and work
Nilson was the son of a landowner, attended school in Visby and grammar school in Linköping and studied biology, mineralogy and chemistry at Uppsala University from 1859 . He was assistant to Lars Fredrik Svanberg (1805-1878) in Uppsala and received his doctorate in 1866. In 1878 he became professor of analytical chemistry in Uppsala and in 1883 director of the Royal Academy of Agriculture in Stockholm.
Nilson examined rare earths with Otto Petterson . He became known in 1879 through the discovery of the element scandium , predicted by Mendeleev as ekaboron from the periodic table , which he extracted from the minerals euxenite and gadolinite. He isolated pure thorium oxide for the first time , which was important in the light bulb industry at the time, and, together with Petterson, contributed to the clarification of the then controversial question of the atomic weight and valency of beryllium . Later he dealt with fertilization, forage crops and other agricultural issues. In particular, he discovered that the calcareous bogs of his homeland Gotland could be made fertile by adding potash , which made it possible to grow sugar beet.
literature
- Obituary in: Svensk Kemisk Tidskrift 11 (1899), pp. 143–146
- Winfried R. Pötsch (lead), Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989, p. 323
Individual evidence
- ^ Mary Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, pp. 677f, with a biography of Nilson
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nilson, Lars Fredrik |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 27, 1840 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Skönberga |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 14, 1899 |
| Place of death | Stockholm |