Redirected from Jons Jacob Berzelius
Jöns Jacob Berzelius (August 20, 1779 - August 7, 1848). Swedish chemist, inventor of modern chemical notation, and the discoverer of silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium. Along with John Dalton and Antoine Lavoisier, considered one of the fathers of modern chemistry. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1808, and member of the Swedish Academy in 1837.
In order to aid his experiments, he developed a system of chemical notation in which the elements were given simple written labels -- such as O for oxygen, or Fe for iron -- and proportions were noted with numbers. This is the same basic system as is used today, the only difference being that where we would use a subscript number (i.e., H2O), Berzelius would use a superscript.
A biography on Jac. Berzelius - his life and work was written by J. Erik Jorpes and published in 1966 and 1970 (originally in Swedish, first published in 1949).
See also: List of Swedish scientists
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump