CHEMIST

Bernard Courtois

1777 - 1838

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Bernard Courtois (French pronunciation: [bɛʁnaʁ kuʁtwa]), also spelled Barnard Courtois, (8 February 1777 – 27 September 1838) was a French chemist credited with first isolating iodine, making early photography possible. By 1811 the Napoleonic Wars had made the government-controlled saltpeter business taper off since there was by then a shortage of wood ashes with which potassium nitrate was made. As an alternative, the needed potassium nitrate was derived from seaweed that was abundant on the Normandy and Brittany shores. The seaweed also had another, yet undiscovered, important chemical. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Bernard Courtois is the 296th most popular chemist (down from 251st in 2019), the 1,587th most popular biography from France (down from 1,501st in 2019) and the 30th most popular French Chemist.

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Among CHEMISTS

Among chemists, Bernard Courtois ranks 296 out of 602. Before him are Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, Kikunae Ikeda, Leopold Gmelin, Per Teodor Cleve, William C. Campbell, and Michael Polanyi. After him are Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, Carl Gustaf Mosander, Christian Friedrich Schönbein, Alexander Mikhaylovich Zaytsev, Rasmus Bartholin, and Thomas Cech.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1777, Bernard Courtois ranks 17. Before him are Juliette Récamier, Louis Jacques Thénard, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, and Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse. After him are Adélaïde d'Orléans, Louis Poinsot, Madame Clicquot Ponsardin, Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, Guillaume Dupuytren, and Filippo Taglioni. Among people deceased in 1838, Bernard Courtois ranks 10. Before him are Lorenzo Da Ponte, Maximilian, Hereditary Prince of Saxony, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, Johanna Schopenhauer, Pierre Louis Dulong, and Ivan Kotliarevsky. After him are Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest, Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy, Frédéric Cuvier, Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, Ferdinand Ries, and Hussein Dey.

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In France

Among people born in France, Bernard Courtois ranks 1,587 out of 6,770. Before him are Victorinus (300), Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1711), Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676), Jean Chapelain (1595), Nicolas de Largillière (1656), and Guillaume de Beaujeu (1300). After him are Marcel Dassault (1892), Philibert I, Duke of Savoy (1465), Claude, Duke of Guise (1496), Louise Diane d'Orléans (1716), Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy (1755), and Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier (1605).

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Among CHEMISTS In France

Among chemists born in France, Bernard Courtois ranks 30. Before him are Antoine Jérôme Balard (1802), Nicolas Leblanc (1742), Luis Federico Leloir (1906), Paul Ulrich Villard (1860), André-Louis Debierne (1874), and Charles François de Cisternay du Fay (1698). After him are Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy (1755), Antoine Baumé (1728), Alexandre Brongniart (1770), Anselme Payen (1795), Charles Friedel (1822), and Théophile-Jules Pelouze (1807).

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