Andrés Manuel del Río
Andrés Manuel del Río (born November 10, 1764 in Madrid , † March 23, 1849 in Mexico City ) was a Spanish mineralogist and chemist . In 1801 he discovered the element vanadium .
Live and act
Education and professorship
After a classical education, del Río obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Alcalá in Henares at the age of 15 . Only two years later did he study physics in private lessons , but then specialized in the field of mineralogy . In June 1782 he received a scholarship from the Spanish Crown and from then on studied chemistry , geology , mineralogy and engineering in the field of mining at the Royal Academy for Mining in Almadén . From 1783 del Río was sent to the Paris Collège de France , where he continued his studies with Jean Pierre Joseph d'Arcet (1777-1844). In 1789 he went to Freiberg in Saxony and met Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), with whom he became friends , under the wing of director Abraham Gottlob Werner (1719–1781) . Both graduated from Freiberg; del Río first went to the Austro-Hungarian Schemnitz and via England back to Paris in 1791. There he was assistant to Lavoisier (1743–1794) until 1793 . After his arrest, del Río fled to England and in exile in 1794 was appointed professor of mineralogy at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City .
In 1820 del Río is listed as a member of the Spanish Cortes Generales . From his political convictions he was a liberal , who advocated the independence of New Spain, Virreinato de Nueva España ( Viceroyalty of New Spain ). He was in Madrid when Mexico gained final independence in 1821. He was told to stay in Spain; but he preferred to return to his new home in Mexico. There he married a Mexican citizen .
Andrés Manuel del Río had a long and successful academic career. Politically, too, his work and his goals of liberal politics leave traces. He was one of the founders of the Palacio de Minería and formed the basis of the current institution of geology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México . He was u. a. Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences ( Real Academia de Ciencias ) in Madrid, the Wernerian Natural History Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Sciences, Académie des sciences France. He later served as President of the Geological Society of Philadelphia and the New York Academy of Sciences .
With the exception of a four-year stay in the USA (1829–1833), Andrés Manuel del Río did not leave Mexico until his death in 1849.
His extensive scientific work includes the discovery and description of the various minerals, as well as innovative methods for the extraction of ores in mining and for Mexico.
Discovery of vanadium
Del Rio were 1,801 samples from the mine in Purisima del Cardenal in Zimapán in the state of Hidalgo sent for analysis. When examining the lead ore, plomo pardo , del Río concluded that he had found a new metallic element. The Vanadinit (Bleivanadat), a compound of a new element whose chemistry any other means known to him element possible.
In different implementations he received compounds of different colors. Logically, Del Río called the new element in his first publications in 1802 first Panchromium ( pancromo , all colors ). He later changed this to Erythronium ( eritrono , red ), due to the element's bright red alkali salts.
In the following year 1803, his friend Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) reached Mexico City. He was skeptical about the allegedly newly discovered element and assumed that del Río had only stumbled upon the chrome , which had been found in 1797 . Humboldt took samples of the ores with him on his return to Europe in 1804 and had them examined by Hyppolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils (1773–1815) in Paris . Collet-Descotil's analyzes incorrectly indicated that the samples only contained chromium. Alexander von Humboldt found his (erroneous) opinion confirmed and rejected del Río's original claim that a new element had been discovered. It is only lead ore with chromium impurities. Incidentally, del Río himself took this position and concluded that an error had occurred in the analysis of the ore.
In 1830 the Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström (1787–1845) succeeded in rediscovering vanadium. Shortly thereafter, Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882) proved that vanadium and erythronium are identical elements. Del Río could never forgive Humboldt for not supporting his discovery and thus delaying the discovery of the new metal by 40 years.
Works
- Elementos de Orictognesia or del conocimiento de los fósiles, prepared for use in the Real Seminario de Mineria de México . 1795.
- Analysis of the deux nouvelles espèces minérales composées de séléniure de zinc et de sulfure de mercure . In: Annales des Mines , 5, Paris 1829.
- Découverte de l'iodure de mercure au Mexique . In: Annales des Mines , 5, Paris 1829.
- Elementos de Orictognesia, o del conocimiento de los fósiles según el sistema de Bercelio; y según los principios de Abraham Góttlob Wérner, con la sinonimia inglesa, alemana y francesa, para uso del Seminario Nacional de Minería de México . Philadelphia 1832.
literature
mostly in Spanish, printed in México
- Vito Alessio Robles: El ilustre maestro Andrés Manuel del Río. México, 1937. 31 p.
- Arturo Arnaiz y Freg: Andrés Manuel del Río: Estudio biográfico . Casino Español de México, 1936.
- Arturo Arnaiz y Freg: Don Andrés del Río, descubrimiento del Eritronio (Vanadio) . Cultura, México DF 1948, 44 pp.
- Carlos Prieto et al .: Andrés Manuel del Río y su obra científica: Segundo centenario de su natalicio, 1764-1964 . Compañía Fundidora de Fierro y Acero de Monterrey, 1966, 81 pp.
- Santiago Ramírez: Biografía del Sr. D. Andrés Manuel del Río: Primer catedrático de mineralogía del Colegio de Minería . Imp. Del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, 1891, 56 pp.
- Santiago Ramírez: Ensayos biográficos de Joaquín Velásquez de León y Andrés Manuel del Río . UNAM, Facultad de Ingeniería, Sociedad de ex alumnos, 1983.
Web links
- For more information (english)
- Palacio de Mínera . Side of the mining engineers; History of mining in Mexico
- Work on his work (PDF; Spanish; 136 kB)
Individual evidence
- ^ LR Caswell: Andres del Río, Alexander von Humboldt, and the Twice-Discovered Element . ( Memento of the original of June 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 124 kB) In: Bull. Hist. Chem. , Vol. 28 (1), 2003
- ↑ Wolfgang-Hagen Hein (Ed.): Alexander von Humboldt. Life and work . Boehringer, Ingelheim am Rhein 1985, ISBN 3-921037-55-7 , p. 29 .
- ↑ Palacio de Mineria
- ↑ Vanadium . In: Wissenschaft-Online-Lexika: Lexikon der Geologie , accessed July 9, 2008
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Río, Andrés Manuel del |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish mineralogist and chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 10, 1764 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Madrid |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 23, 1849 |
| Place of death | Mexico city |