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Dmitri Mendeleev

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:50,000.00 - 60,000.00 USD
Dmitri Mendeleev

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Auction Date:2018 Jan 10 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Russian chemist and inventor (1834–1907) who formulated the Periodic Law and created a predictive version of the periodic table of elements. Remarkable autograph manuscript in Russian, signed “D. Mendeleev,” 24 leaves (some with additional writing on the reverse), 8.75 x 14, no date but circa 1898. Mendeleev’s handwritten manuscript of his speech on “The Oscillation of the Balance,” delivered at the General Meeting of the 10th Congress of Russian Naturalists in Kiev in August 1898, corrected by Mendeleev throughout. In very good to fine condition. Accompanied by a handsome custom-made blue half morocco solander case, as well as a Russian transcript of the text as published.

In his annotated bibliography of his own works, self-compiled in 1899, Mendeleev writes: 'Predmet schitaju ochen’ vazhnym i interesnym' ('A subject I find very important and interesting'). After the end of his teaching career at the University of St. Petersburg in 1890, Mendeleev was variously employed by the government bureaucracy. From 1892 on he was 'concerned in the regulation of the system of weights and measures in Russia, a task that he discharged ‘with enthusiasm, since here the purely scientific was closely interwoven with the practical.’ In 1893 he was named director of the newly created Central Board of Weights and Measures, a post which he held until his death, and in connection with which he frequently traveled abroad" (DSB IX, 292). 'The great importance of Mendeleev’s work,' write Kayak and Smirnova, 'was that in his approach to the development of the theory of balances and methods of accurate weighing he took into account the physical essence of the phenomena investigated, whereas many investigators before and even after him attempted to solve all the problems on the basis of purely mechanical conceptions…Mendeleev’s interest in balances as the most important instrument in physical and chemical investigations was manifested from the very beginning of his scientific work. Long before his move to the Depot of Standard Weights and Measures he devoted much attention to the perfection of balances, and methods of accurate weighing. In 1861 Mendeleev succeded in observing the oscillations of balances from a distance, thereby eliminating the influence of the heat radiated by the observer on the balance; he also proposed the use of a heat distributor made of copper for a balance beam. Mendeleev’s most important work on the development of the theory of balances and methods of accurate weighing was made at the Principal Bureau of Weights and Measures, where he took upon himself the entire responsibility for organizing and equipping the weight laboratory.'

Published: Sochineniya 7, pp. 577-591. Reference: Sochineniya 25, p. 752, no. 275. - Cf. L. K. Kayak and N. A. Smirnova, Theory of balances and accurate weighing in the investigations of Mendeleev and later developments, in: Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika 9 (Sept. 1969), pp. 25-28.