The cat who discovered iodine (8 photos)

And we’re not talking about a bottle whose lid was accidentally chewed by a mustachioed man. And about a real chemical element.





Bernard Courtois (1777-1838) was a French chemist who did not even receive formal schooling. But this did not stop him from becoming famous.



Bernard Courtois

While still a teenager, the boy and his older brother helped his father, who owned a saltpeter factory in Dijon. The business is profitable and profitable, since in the era of the Napoleonic wars a lot of saltpeter was spent on the production of gunpowder.

The young man studied chemistry in college. But he did not complete the course, since his father had moved to Paris by that time and needed help at production. But the idea turned out to be a failure, and production was unprofitable. Courtois Sr. even ended up in debtors' prison, and the failing enterprise came under the control of Bernard.





It must be said that Courtois was also a researcher and spent a lot of time in the laboratory. One of the priorities on the chemist's to-do list was to understand why burning seaweed, the ash of which was used to make saltpeter, produced a substance that corroded metal vessels.

Once again, the chemist puzzled over the solution in his laboratory. But not alone, but with your beloved cat. Which, I must say, was allowed to do a lot of things. The animal accompanied the owner everywhere and always and was wherever it considered convenient at the moment.



The tailed assistant was sitting on his owner's shoulder, when suddenly something scared him. What it was - a sound, a smell, or a sleepy mouse that seemed to be there - is unknown. But the cat gracefully fell from the owner’s shoulder and touched two flasks, which fell to the floor and broke. And their contents - an alcoholic solution of seaweed ash and sulfuric acid, after mixing, produced clouds of bluish-violet smoke, which settled on surrounding objects in the form of tiny dark crystals with a metallic sheen and a nasty odor.



This turned out to be a pest substance. In fact, a reaction occurred between sulfuric acid and an alkali metal iodide salt, which resulted in the release of free iodine.

Further experiments followed with the substance, to the discovery of which the cat had a paw. It received the name “yodes” in honor of the color (the word is translated from Greek as “violet-like”).



Courtois began producing iodine. But, apparently, he lacked a commercial spirit - things were not going particularly well. The need for saltpeter came to naught due to the end of the war and the decline of Napoleon's own star. And the funds from the sale of iodine sold out strangely quickly.



So quickly that Courtois, who died suddenly, left his widow and son practically in poverty. There were not enough funds even for a normal funeral - the chemist was buried in a temporary grave. And since after the time established by law - 5 years - no one claimed the body for reburial, Bernard’s final resting place was lost forever.



Ironically, in the future, the sale of Courtois's discovery (and his cat) helped other people make substantial fortunes.