Torbern Bergman
| Torbern Bergman | |
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Torbern Olaf Bergman (1735-1784)
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| Born | Torbern Olaf Bergman 20 March 1735 Katrineberg, Låstad parish, Sweden |
| Died | 8 July 1784 (aged 49) Medevi, Sweden |
| Residence | Sweden |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Fields | Chemist and mineralogist |
| Institutions | University of Uppsala |
| Alma mater | University of Uppsala |
| Doctoral advisor | Bengt Ferrner |
| Doctoral students | Johann Afzelius |
| Known for | Chemical affinity tables |
| Influences | Carl von Linné |
| Spouse | Margareta Catharina Trast |
Torbern Olaf (Olof) Bergman (KVO) (20 March 1735 – 8 July 1784) was a Swedish chemist and mineralogist noted for his 1775 Dissertation on Elective Attractions, containing the largest chemical affinity tables ever published. Bergman was the first chemist to use the A, B, C, etc., system of notation for chemical species.
Torbern was born on 20 March 1735, the son of Barthold Bergman and Sara Hägg. He enrolled at the University of Uppsala at age 17. His father wished him to read either law or divinity, while he himself was anxious to study mathematics and natural science; in the effort to please both himself and his father, he overworked himself and harmed his health. During a period of enforced abstinence from study, he amused himself with field botany and entomology. He was able to send Linnaeus specimens of several new kinds of insects, and in 1756 he succeeded in proving that, contrary to the opinion of that naturalist, the so-called Coccus aquaticus was really the ovum of a kind of leech. He returned to the university in 1758, and received his Ph.D. in that year.
Bergman lectured at the university on physics and mathematics. Upon the resignation of the celebrated Wallerius, Bergman was a candidate for the professorship of chemistry and mineralogy. His competitors charged him with ignorance of the subject, because he had never written on it. To refute them, he shut himself up for some time in a laboratory, and prepared a treatise on the manufacture of alum, which became a standard work. He was appointed a professor of chemistry, and remained at this position for the rest of his life.
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