MARTIN HEINRICH KLAPROTH: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE, WORKS - ARTE - 2025

Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743-1817) was a German-born chemist, mineral scientist, and pharmacist. Some consider him the father of analytical chemistry. Furthermore, he was the first to apply chemical analysis to archeology.

He is also known for being the first professor of chemistry at the University of Berlin since its founding, after serving as a lecturer in chemistry of the royal artillery. Klaproth is considered the most important chemist of his time in Germany.

Half ink engraving by Martin Heinrich Klaproth Source: See page for author

He is recognized for describing uranium (1789), zirconium (1789), chromium (1789), titanium (1795), strontium (1798), tellurium (1798), and cerium (1803). He identified these minerals as distinct elements, but he did not obtain them in their pure state.

The German minerologist was a strong opponent of the phlogiston theory, which stated that all flammable material things had an invisible substance that was lost with combustion. Therefore, he was a great promoter of the theories of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier.

Considered the father of modern chemistry, Lavoisier is famous for his Law of Conservation of Matter, his main idea being the famous statement that says: “matter is neither created nor destroyed, it only transforms”.

Biography

Childhood

Martin Heinrich Klaproth was born in December 1743 in the city of Wernigerode, province of Branderburg in Germany. He was the third son of a humble but respected tailor. The economic conditions of his family worsened, losing everything in a tragic fire.

Some historians differ at the time of that episode, but the truth is that this event forced him to leave the Latin school in Wernigerode and pay for the studies he subsequently undertook.

Beginnings as a pharmacist and chemist

At the age of 16 he was an apprentice apothecary and provided assistance in various pharmacies in Quedlinburg, Hannover, Berlin and Danzig. His experience in the pharmaceutical area was the perfect path that led him to the study of chemistry and to achieve the mastery he had in that field. During his stay in the German capital he began his studies with chemists Johann Heinrich Pott and Andreas Sigismund Marggraf.

In 1771 he settled permanently in Berlin, managing the pharmacy of a friend and former boss Valentin Rose, who had recently died. Faced with this event, Klaproth also took care of the four children Rose left upon his death. Among them was Valentin Rose, the youngest, who years later discovered sodium bicarbonate.

During this period he created a laboratory for the purpose of carrying out certain experimental investigations. He also married Christiane Sophie Lehmann, niece of the chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf who was his teacher a few years before.

Dedication to the study of minerals

In 1780 he started his own business in the city of Berlin and two years later he was a pharmaceutical advisor to the Ober-Collegium Medicum. Since then he began working at the Berlin Academy of Sciences as a regular chemist, replacing Franz Carl Achard, a Prussian chemist, physicist and biologist.

In 1787 the Royal Artillery School appointed him professor of chemistry. There he shared part-time teaching with the Collegium Medico-chirurgicum, the School of Mining, the General School of War and the Berg-und Hütteninstitut.

During these years he devoted much of his time to mineral analysis, highlighting his achievements to differentiate and describe zirconium, chromium and uranium. Some historians indicate that this name was assigned to it by the recent discovery of the planet Uranus, a fact that generated a great impact on it.

Klaproth also managed to elucidate the components of alum, apatite, red copper ore, yellow lead ore, aragonite, lepidolite, dolomite, emerald, topaz, and garnet. He was also interested in determining the content of silver, copper, zinc, as well as glass and the materials from which coins were made.

Last years

In 1795 he rediscovered titanium, which in 1791 had been an independent find by William Gregor in a mine. He named it after the Titans of Greek mythology. In this period he achieved new analyzes of other chemical elements such as strontium, tellurium and cerium.

By 1796 he was appointed as a member of the Royal Society, the scientific society of the United Kingdom, the oldest and most recognized academy of sciences in the world. Then in 1804 he was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and one of six foreign associates at the Institut de France.

Years later, he was also appointed a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. When the University of Berlin was founded in 1810, he was selected as a professor of chemistry, at the suggestion of the German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. This position he held until his death.

In January 1817, at the age of 74, he died of a stroke in Berlin, the most illustrious chemist of his time in Germany. Today a lunar crater bears Klaproth's name in his memory.

Contributions to science

Uranium salts under UV light. Source: Drimogemon26

Klaproth described the properties of zirconium and titanium, although he did not obtain them in the pure metallic state. Similarly, he was able to determine the compounds of numerous substances, including elements that were vaguely identified by others such as tellurium, beryllium, strontium, cerium, melitic acid and chromium.

He also developed analytical techniques for chalcedony and more than forty silicates through their evaporation with potassium hydroxide solution, as well as their fusion in a silver crucible.

He came to compile an immense collection of minerals. Almost 5 thousand pieces that were bought at his death by the University of Berlin and then went to the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, where they are today.

Discovery of uranium

He was the first to discover uranium by detecting it and trying to separate it from pitchblende, a black mineral and source of discovery of many other elements. For a long time uranium was considered unimportant as it had a very different composition from the elements already known. In fact, its use was limited to very specific situations such as the staining of glass and ceramics.

It was not until 55 years later that the natural radioactivity of this element was detected, thanks to the studies of Henri Becquerel. And in 1938 it was finally given its true importance with Otto Hahn's research, in which the incredible amount of energy that was released when splitting the uranium atom was revealed.

Uranium, with 92 protons, is the element with the highest atomic weight of those found in nature. The main use of this substance at present is as fuel for nuclear reactors and for the construction of stabilizers for airplanes, artificial satellites and sailboats.

In its metallic state, it is used for X-ray targets. It is a highly controversial substance because when separated, one of its isotopes has the possibility of transforming into plutonium, a highly toxic and radioactive substance that is often used in reactors and nuclear weapons.

Analytic chemistry

Klaproth appreciated the true value of quantitative methods. During his work, he dedicated himself to improving and systematizing mineralogy processes. He is also considered the father of analytical chemistry, which is one that studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify and quantify the chemical composition of a material.

This branch of chemistry has its greatest application not only in science, but also in engineering and medicine, especially forensics.

One of the great contributions of Klaproth was in the methodology of analytical work. During the 18th century, the trend was to ignore small discrepancies and focus on the most significant results of scientific analysis.

Klaproth breaks with that tradition and, along with his final results, also reported incomplete, faulty or discrepant data, known as divergent data. This practice became a standard for the next generations of analysts.

Plays

This German chemist wrote more than 200 scientific articles, published in the Journal of Physics, the Annals of Chemistry or the Journal of Mines. He was the author of three works between 1790 and 1815, the most important being Contributions to the chemical knowledge of mineral bodies, a set of 5 volumes. He also produced a dictionary of chemistry, in collaboration with the German physician Caspar Friedrich Wolff.

The original titles of his works and their chronological publication is as follows:

- Chemische Untersuchung der Mineralquellen zu Carlsbad. (1790)

- Beiträge Zur Chemischen Kenntniss Der Mineralkörpe. 5 volumes. (1795–1810)

- Chemisches Wörterbuch with Wolff 9 volumes (1807–1819)

- Chemische Abhandlungen gemischten Inhalts (1815)

References

1. Klaproth, Martin Heinrich. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Recovered from Encyclopedia.com
2. Martin Heinrich Klaproth. (2017, December 20). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from es.wikipedia.org
3. Rowlatt, J. (2014, November 2). Uranium: the most controversial element - BBC News World. Recovered bbc.com
4. Encyclopædia Britannica (2019, January 01) Martin Heinrich Klaproth. Recovered from britannica.com
5. Chem. Educ. 1959366A368. Posted Jun 1, 1959 doi.org/10.1021/ed036pA368
6. NNDB. (2019). Martin Heinrich Klaproth. Recovered from nndb.com