- Antoine Jérôme Balard
Infobox Scientist
name = Antoine Jérôme Balard
box_width =
image_width =150px
caption = Antoine Jérôme Balard
birth_date = 30 September 1802
birth_place =Montpellier
death_date = 30 April 1876
death_place =Paris
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = French
ethnicity =
field =chemistry
work_institutions =
alma_mater =
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for =bromine
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
influences =
influenced = M.P.E. Berthelot
prizes =
religion =
footnotes =Antoine Jérôme Balard (30 September 1802 - 30 April 1876) was a French
chemist and the discoverer ofbromine .Born at
Montpellier , he started as anapothecary , but taking up teaching he acted as chemical assistant at the faculty of sciences of his native town, and then became professor of chemistry at the royal college and school of pharmacy and at the faculty of sciences. In 1826 he discovered in seawater a substance which he recognized as a previously unknown element and namedbromine . It had been independently prepared byCarl Jacob Löwig the previous year and the two are both regarded as having discovered the element.This achievement brought him the reputation that secured his election as successor to
L. J. Thenard in the chair of chemistry at the faculty of sciences inParis , and in 1851 he was appointed professor of chemistry at the College de France, where he had M.P.E. Berthelot first as pupil, then as assistant and finally as colleague. Balard also had Louis Pasteur as a pupil when Pasteur was only 26 years old. It was in Balard's laboratory that Pasteur discovered the difference between "right-handed" and "left-handed" crystals while he was working with tartaric acid. Balard died inParis in 1876.While the discovery of bromine and the preparation of many of its compounds was his most conspicuous piece of work, Balard was an industrious chemist on both the pure and applied sides. In his researches on the
bleaching compounds ofchlorine he was the first to advance the view that bleaching-powder is a double compound ofcalcium chloride and hypochlorite; and he devoted much time to the problem of economically obtaining soda andpotash from seawater, though here his efforts were nullified by the discovery of the much richer sources of supply afforded by theStassfurt deposits. Inorganic chemistry he published papers on the decomposition of ammoniumoxalate , with formation of oxamic acid, onamyl alcohol , on thecyanide s, and on the difference in constitution betweennitric ether andsulphuric ether . He also helpedLouis Pasteur devise the experiment that would prove spontaneous generation to be false.Further reading
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Charlot
first=Colette
authorlink=
year=2008|month=Feb.
title=A.J. Balard, the bromium discoverer
journal=Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie
volume=55
issue=356
pages=495-504
publisher= |location =France | issn = 0035-2349| pmid = 18549189
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Charlot
first=Colette
authorlink=
coauthors=Flahaut Jean
year=2003
month=
title=Antoine Jérôme Balard. The man
journal=Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie
volume=51
issue=338
pages=251–64
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 14606485----
*
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