Bergman, Torbern Olof

Related Category: Metallurgy and Mining: Biographies

(tr´bərn ´lôv bĕr´yəmän), 1735–84, Swedish chemist, physicist, and mineralogist. A professor at the Univ. of Uppsala from 1758, he developed a theory of chemical affinity, made improvements in the methods of chemical analysis and in the classification of rocks, and did important research in crystallography. He wrote A Dissertation on Elective Attractions (1775, tr. 1785). His collected works, Essays, Physical and Chemical, appeared in six volumes (1779–81, tr. 1791).