Swedish chemist · 1792–1841
Johan August Arfwedson
Johan August Arfwedson discovered lithium at 25, while working as a student in the Stockholm laboratory of Jöns Jacob Berzelius.
How Lithium was found
In 1817 Arfwedson analysed petalite, a mineral from the iron mine on the island of Utö near Stockholm. His totals kept coming out about 4 per cent short. He traced the missing part to an alkali that resembled sodium and potassium but formed different salts.
Berzelius named it lithion, from the Greek lithos, “stone”, because unlike sodium and potassium it had been found in a mineral rather than in plant ash. Arfwedson soon found it in spodumene and lepidolite too. He tried to isolate the metal but failed; that was first done by William Brande and Humphry Davy using electrolysis.
Life and career
Born 1792 · Died 1841
Arfwedson came from a wealthy Stockholm merchant family and studied at Uppsala. After his years with Berzelius he travelled in Europe and then managed his family’s estates and businesses, doing little further chemistry.
Discovered in the same era
Other elements identified within ten years of 1817.