Clemens Alexander WinklerBorn 26 Dec 1838; died 8 Oct 1904 at age 65. German chemist who discovered the element germanium (1886). He had a background in managing a cobalt glassworks and then on the faculty of the Freiberg School of Mining. Early in his career, he developed new techniques for industrial gas analysis and developed the Winkler gas burette. When, having been asked by the Freiberg Academy of Mining to analyze the mineral argyrodite (a silver sulphide ore), he found that all the known elements it contained amounted to only 93% of its weight. After spending four months tracking down and isolating the remaining 7%, he found the new element he called germanium, for Germany. This turned out to be the third of the elements (eka-silicon) predicted by Dmitry I. Mendeleyev in 1871.« |
