Bertram Boltwood

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Bertram Borden Boltwood (* 27. July 1870 in Amherst , Massachusetts , USA ; † 14 / 15. August 1927 in Hancock Point , Maine (by suicide)) was an American radio chemist .

Live and act

Boltwood in his laboratory in Slone Physics Laboratory, Yale 1917

Bertram Boltwood studied chemistry from 1889 in Yale , Munich (from 1892 to 1894 with Gerhard Krüss ) and Leipzig (1896). In 1897 he received his doctorate from Yale University under Horace L. Wells (1855-1924) .

From 1909 to 1910 he spent a year researching with Ernest Rutherford in Manchester. From 1918 to 1927 he was Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. In 1907 he was the first to determine the absolute age of rocks using the example of rocks from Sri Lanka due to the radioactive decay of uranium to lead ( uranium-lead dating ) to 400 to 2200 million years.

Honors

In 1911, Boltwood was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and in 1913 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . The uranium mineral Boltwoodite was named in his honor.

Fonts (selection)

  • Determination of the molecular conductivity of rubidium and cesium chloride. In: Journal for Phys. Chem. 22, 1897, pp. 132-133
  • The Ultimate Disintegration Products of the Radio-active Elements. Part II. The disintegration products of uranium . In: American Journal of Science . 4th series, volume 23, number 134, 1907, pp. 77-88 ( doi: 10.2475 / ajs.s4-23.134.78 ; online ).

literature

  • Lawrence Badash: Boltwood, Bertram Borden . In: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography . Volume 2, Charles Scribner's Sons, Detroit 2008. pp. 257-260 ( online ).
  • Alois Francis Kovarik: Biographical Memoir of Bertram Borden Boltwood, 1870-1927 . In: Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences . Volume 14, 1930, pp. 69-96 ( PDF ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heuel-Fabianek, B. (2017): Natural radioisotopes: the “atomic clock” for determining the absolute age of rocks and archaeological finds. Radiation Protection Practice, 1/2017, pp. 31–42
  2. ^ Member History: Bertram B. Boltwood. American Philosophical Society, accessed May 10, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Boltwood, Bertram
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boltwood, Bertram Borden
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Amherst
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1927 or August 15, 1927
Place of death Hancock Point