François Lecoq de Boisbaudran was born in Cognac, France back in 1838 to Paul and Anne Louise. His mother being well educated taught him history and foreign languages, including English. He attended École Polytechnique where he studied the books assigned in its courses. He was a self-taught scientist.
With the help of his family he assembled a modest chemical laboratory on the second floor of their home. His main interest was the phenomenon of supersaturation, in which substances can exist in solution in higher concentrations than is possible under normal conditions. Possibly caused by his experiments his health failed and he died in 1912, he was 74.
What you may not know about Mr. Boisbaudran is that he is responsible for contributing thee elements into the Periodic table those were gallium, samarium and dysprosium. He was also a pioneer in spectroscopy, the study of the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation.
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