Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner
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Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (December 13, 1780 – March 24, 1849) was a German chemist.
As a coachman's son, Döbereiner had little opportunity for formal schooling, but he was apprenticed to an apothecary, read widely, and attended science lectures. Eventually from 1810 he was professor of the University of Jena. He is also known especially for his discovery of similar triads of elements in 1829, a step in the development of the periodic law. He discovered furfural, worked on the use of platinum as a catalyst, and invented a lighter, known as Döbereiner's Lamp. In work beginning in 1817, Döbereiner discovered that groups of elements with similar chemical properties such as Lithium, Sodium and Potassium had a strange similarity. The average of the atomic weight of Lithium and Potassium was the same as the atomic weight of Sodium. This pattern was replicated with Calcium, Strontium and Barium as well as Sulphur, Selenium, and Tellurium and also Chlorine, Bromine and Iodine. These groups became known as Döbereiner's triads.
