Svante August Arrhenius was born at Uppalsa, Sweden, on February 19,.
1859 His intelligence and creativity were apperent nt from an early age--he taught.
himself to read when he was three Although credi ted with many scientific.
innovations, he remains best known for his ionic theory of solutions, For which he.
was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1903 Arrhenius henius died in.
Stockholm on October 2, 1927.
Science is a human endeavor subject to human frailties and governed by.
personalities, politics, and prejudice ces. One of the best illustrations of the often.
bumpy path of the advancement of scientific knowledge is the story of Swedish.
chemist Svante Arrhenius. When Arrhenius henius began his doctorate at the.
University of Uppsala around 1880, he chose to study the passage of electricity.
through solutions. This was a problem that had baffled scientists for a century, The.
first experiments had been done in the 17 70s by Cavendish, who corn pared the.
conductivity of salt solutions with that of rain water, using his own physiological.
reaction to the electric shocks he rece ived! Arrhenius had an array of instruments.
to measure electric current, but the process of carefully weighing, meas uring, and.
recording data from a multitude of experiments was a tedious one.
After his long series of experimerits were performed, Arrhenius quit his laboratory.
bench and returned to his country home to try to formulate a model that could.
account for his data, He wrote, "I got the idea in the night of the 17th of May in.
the year 1883, and I could not s leep that night until I had worked through the.
whole problem." His idea was that ions were responsible for conducting electricity.
through a solution.
B ack at Uppsa]a, Arrhenius took his doctoral dissertation containing the new theo.
ry to his advisor, Professor Cleve, an eminent chemist and the discoverer of the.
elements holmlum and thulium. Cleve's unlnterested response was what Arrhenius.
