Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743-1817), a Great, Somewhat Forgotten, Chemist

Abstract

For various reasons, some of them linked to the evolution of the historiography of Chemistry, many recognized and important chemists in their time – and in ours, because of the legacy they left – are relegated to some degree of oblivion. One of these chemists, dead just over 200 years ago, is Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743-1817), a key figure in the transition from phlogiston theory to Lavoisier’s new chemistry and one of the creators of modern analytical chemistry, an empiricist who discovered many elements and polymorphism, author of remarkable chemical and mineralogical analyses and creator of archaeometry. This article presents the life, training and scientific production of a great, but less remembered, chemist, crossing the frontiers of Chemistry in many cases.