People/scientist
Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786), scientist, from Sweden. Linked to tungsten, manganese, molybdenum.
The lucky break
In 1781 he worked out the composition of the mineral then called tungsten, now scheelite (calcium tungstate), and obtained tungstic acid. In 1774 analysing manganese dioxide led him to chlorine and baryta.1,2
The downfall
His illness worsened and he married the widow of his predecessor only on his death-bed, dying two days later.1,2
Legacy
The 1911 Britannica calls his record as a discoverer of new substances probably unequalled. In 1778 he also obtained molybdic acid from molybdenite and in 1775 studied arsenic acid.1,2
Story cards
Where next
Sources
- Scheele, Karl Wilhelm Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1911 (public-domain text on Wikisource)
- File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons
Pictures on this page: Carl Wilhelm Scheele.jpg, Unidentified painter (Public domain).
From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.
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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Ore sorting by Tomra Sorting GmbH, CC BY-SA 4.0.