Antal Ruprecht (1748–1818) was a Hungarian Chemist.

Antal Ruprecht
Anton Leopold von Rupprecht
Born1748
Szomolnok, Hungary
(today Smolník, Slovakia)
Died1818
CitizenshipHungarian
Alma materMining Academy of Selmecbánya/Schemnitz
Scientific career
InstitutionsMining Academy of Selmecbánya/Schemnitz

He was born in Szomolnok, Hungary in 1748. He graduated from the Mining Academy of Selmecbánya where he later became a professor of chemistry and metallurgy in 1779. He was the first to melt platinum and contributed to the discovery of tellurium in 1784.[1][2] Ruprecht was the first to theorise that alkaline earth metals were compounds rather than elements; later proved by Humphry Davy.[3] This theory caused some controversy in the chemistry community due to the previous assumption of earths being fundamental substances.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Ruprecht, Antal (1748-1818)". European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  2. ^ Görög, Sándor (2002). "Chemistry in Hungary". Nachrichten aus der Chemie. 50 (6): 712–715. doi:10.1002/nadc.20020500612.
  3. ^ Nagaiyar Krishnamurthy & Chiranjib Kumar Gupta (2004). Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths. CRC Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0203413029.
  4. ^ Ferenc Szabadvary (1993). History of Analytical Chemistry. CRC Press. p. 118. ISBN 978-2881245695.