Ravindra Vaze

A popularly accepted view is that for every chemical element discovered, one can identify the discoverer and assign credit to him. But when we look back from a historical point of view, most of the time it is not true. A person who isolates a new element may not fully realise its importance. In such a case, the contribution made by later workers on the same new substance or the element has to be taken into account. From this, we construct a logical picture of the discovery made and judge the role played by each and every person connected with it. The discovery of the element iodine provides an interesting example of this aspect of a scientific discovery. Let us begin with an overview of the characters involved in it and trace the path of research to confirm the existence of this important element in nature.

Bernard Courtois, son of Jean Baptiste Courtois, was born at Dijon, France, in 1777. At the time of his birth, Jean Baptiste worked as a laboratory assistant in a chemical laboratory. A few years later, he took up the post as a manager of an artificial saltpetre (Potassium Nitrate) Works. Subsequently, during the Napoleonic Wars, he owned a small unit for the production of saltpetre. Bernard was apprenticed as a pharmacist and then went to the laboratory of a well-known French chemist, Thenard and Seguin. During this period, France was engaged in war with…read more NOPR