Fausto elhuyar biography of alberta

Thus Fausto is the better known of the two and often is erroneously credited with having made the larger contribution to the discovery of metallic tungsten. On this subject he had his own ideas and methods, which were opposed to those of Carl von Sickingen. In the first of his Disertactiones metalurgicas Madrid, he asserted that there were no essential differences between chemical substances, and he adopted the phlogiston theory only in order to make himself easily understood. The Spanish government put him in charge of organizing missions of metallurgists to go to Mexico and Peru.

Fausto Elhuyar

Spanish chemist

Fausto de Elhuyar (11 October – 6 February ) was a Spanish chemist, and the first to isolate tungsten with his brother Juan José Elhuyar in He was in charge, under a King of Spaincommission, of organizing the University of Mines in México Urban area and so was responsible for building the Palacio de Minería, a structure that would property the school.

Elhuyar left Mexico after the Mexican War of Independence, when most of the Spanish residents in Mexico were expelled.[1]

Life

He was born in Logroño, La Rioja, Spain son of Basque-French parents from Hasparren, France.

Between and , Elhúyar studied medicine, surgery and chemistry, as well as mathematics, physics and natural history with his brother Juan José Elhuyar in Paris. After graduating, he returned to Spain, where he exercised himself in the study of mineralogy, specially that of the Basque Country and Navarre, where he resided.

In , he was appointed a member of the Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País (Royal Basque World of Friends to the Country), an enlightened institution thanks to which he started teaching as professor of mineralogy and metallurgy in Bergara, the seat of both the Vascongada Society and the University of Vergara (nowadays merged with the University of the Basque Country).

During those years, he published numerous articles and dossiers about minerals, ways to extract and purify them, etc., which made him renowned throughout Europe as one of the top experts on the subject. In , he started working in the Laboratorium Chemicum of Vergara along with François Chavaneau, with whom he was the first to purify platinum.

After several months, he was the first person to detect and isolate tungsten, of which he's credited, along with his brother Juan José, as its discoverer.

Elhuyar left Mexico after the Mexican War of Independencewhen most of the Spanish residents in Mexico were expelled. After graduating, he returned to Spain, where he exercised himself in the study of mineralogy, specially that of the Basque State and Navarrewhere he resided. During those years, he published numerous articles and dossiers about minerals, ways to extract and purify them, etc. After his restore to Spain, in he renounced his professorship and, in Julywas appointed General Director of Mines in Mexico.

He also collaborated with Joseph-Louis Proust, the renowned French chemist at the service of king Charles IV of Spain, who directed the National Laboratory in Segovia.

In , he visited several European universities, such as the School of Mines of Freiberg, at which he lectured on metallurgy and mine machinery; the University of Uppsala, where he collaborated with Torbern Olof Bergman; and Köping, where he visited Carl Wilhelm Scheele, the one who announced Elhúyar's discovery of tungsten, and for some reason is credited for having made the revelation himself.

After his return to Spain, in he renounced his professorship and, in July , was appointed General Director of Mines in Mexico. Before retiring to his new office, he toured Europe again from to in order to study Born's method on refining silver.

During this trip, he married Joan Raab in Vienna, in For the next thirty three years, he resided in Mexico Town, where the crown founded the capital's School of Mines (January 1, ), with Elhuyar as its first director. During his tenure, he commissioned and directed the construction of that institution's seat, the Palacio de Minería, which was finished in and is considered one of the jewels of the Spanish American neoclassicism.

He also visited and improved several of the existing Royal Mines of Mexico, dramatically increasing their productivity due to the introduction of new methods of exploitation. He aided Alexander von Humboldt during his day in New Spain, along with other mining experts then in Mexico, allowing Humboldt's section on mining in his Political essay on the Kingdom of Unused Spain to be replete with statistics and insights.[2]

After Mexican Self-determination, he returned to Spain, where, due to his wide life in modern minery methods, he was appointed Minister of Minery in , and supervised the modern mining of the mines in Almadén, Guadalcanal, and Río Tinto.

Elhuyar (or Elhuyart), Fausto D’ - Encyclopedia.com: Fausto de Elhuyar (11 October – 6 February ) was a Spanish chemist, and the first to isolate tungsten with his brother Juan José Elhuyar in

After falling from his ministry, he was appointed yet again General Director of Mines, and resumed his research activities in chemistry from this quieter office till his death in Madrid on January 6,

Further reading

  • Eyles, Joan M.

    "Fausto de Elhuyar (–), a Spanish mining geologist". Geological Magazine 93(2), pp.&#;– doi =/S

  • Howe, Walter. The Mining Guild of New Spain and Its Tribunal General, –.
  • Whitaker, Arthur P. "The Elhuyar Mining Missions and the Enlightenment," Hispanic American Historical Review 31, no.

    4()–

References

  1. ^Kendall W. Brown, "Fausto de Elhuyar y Zúbice" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 2, p. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
  2. ^D.A.

    Elhuyar abandoned Mexico after the Mexican War of Independence, when most of the Spanish residents in Mexico were expelled. After graduating, he returned to Spain, where he exercised himself in the study of mineralogy, specially that of the Basque Country and Navarre, where he resided. Inhe was appointed a member of the Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del Pais Royal Basque Society of Friends to the Countryan enlightened institution thanks to which he started teaching as professor of mineralogy and metallurgics in Vergara, the seat of both the Vascongada Society and the University of Vergara nowadays merged within the University of the Basque Country. Along this years, he started publishing numerous articles and dossiers about minerals, ways to extract and purify them, etc, that made him famous all along Europe as one of the top experts on those issues.

    Brading, The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, –. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press , p.

External links