Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan
Born on September 28, 1852, Henri Moissan was a French chemist and Professor of chemistry at the École Supérieure de Pharmacie in Paris. His first lessons in chemistry came from his father, a railroad official. Moissan was apprenticed to an apothecary at the age of eighteen, but in 1872, decided to study under Edmond Fremy at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle. In 1879 he passed his examinations and accepted a position at the École Supérieure de Pharmacie. Moissan's marriage provided him with an opportunity to study chemistry. His father-in-law gladly provided material support, allowing Moissan to devote all of his time to scientific research. After many failures and four interruptions caused by serious poisoning, Moissan finally produced the element fluorine in 1886. Moissan's use of the electric furnace allowed him to prepare many uncommon metals, among them uranium, tungsten, vanadium, chromium, manganese, titanium, and molybdenum. He was the world's leading inorganic chemist at the turn of the 20th century and received the Nobel Prize in 1906. |
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