Albert Mauritz Atterberg (19 March 1846 – 4 April 1916) was a Swedish

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and agricultural scientist who created the

Atterberg limits The Atterberg limits are a basic measure of the critical water contents of a fine-grained soil: its shrinkage limit, plastic limit, and liquid limit. Depending on its water content, soil may appear in one of four states: solid, semi-solid, plasti ...

, which are commonly referred to by geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists today. In Sweden, he is equally known for creating the Atterberg

grain size Grain size (or particle size) is the diameter of individual grains of sediment, or the lithified particles in clastic rocks. The term may also be applied to other granular materials. This is different from the crystallite size, which ...

scale, which remains the one in use. Atterberg received his Ph.D. in chemistry from

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

in 1872 and then stayed there as a lecturer in

analytical chemistry Analytical skill, Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to Separation process, separate, identify, and Quantification (science), quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute t ...

until 1877, during which time he traveled across Sweden and abroad to study the latest developments in

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

. He then went on to become the principal of the Chemical Station and Seed Control Institute at

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 41,388 inhabitants in 2020 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

, publishing numerous papers on agricultural research dealing with the classification of varieties of oats and corn between 1891 and 1900. It was towards the age of fifty-four that Atterberg, while continuing his work on chemistry, began to focus his efforts on the classification and plasticity of soils, for which he is most remembered. Atterberg was apparently the first to suggest the limit <0.002 mm as a classification for clay particles. He found that plasticity to be a particular characteristic of clay and as a result of his investigations arrived at the consistency limits which bear his name today. He also conducted studies aiming to identify the specific minerals that give a clayey soil its plastic nature. Atterberg's work on soil classification gained formal recognition from the

International Society of Soil Science International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

in a

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Conference in 1913. Two year later a U.S. Bureau of Standards report stated that Atterberg's method was "as simple a one as could be devised, and...it is well that we should become familiar with it." The U.S. Bureau of Chemistry and Soils adopted it in 1937. The importance of Atterberg's work has never been fully realized in his own field of agricultural science, nor in other subjects concerned with clays, such as ceramics. Its introduction to the field of

geotechnical engineering Geotechnical engineering, also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to solve its engineering problems. I ...

was due to Karl Terzaghi, who came to realise its importance at a relatively early stage of his research. Terzaghi's assistant,

Arthur Casagrande Arthur Casagrande (August 28, 1902 – September 6, 1981) was an American civil engineer born in Austria-Hungary who made important contributions to the fields of engineering geology and geotechnical engineering during its infancy. Renowned for ...

, standardized the tests in his paper in 1932 and the procedures have been followed worldwide ever since. He was the uncle of the composer Kurt Atterberg.

References

* Blackall, T. E. (1952). "A. M. Atterberg 1846-1916," Geotechnique, 3(1), pp. 17–19. * Casagrande, A. (1932). "Research on the Atterberg Limits of Soils," Public Roads 13(8), pp. 121–30 and 136. * Kinnison, C. S. (1915). Technological Papers of the Bureau of Standards No. 46. A Study of the Atterberg Plasticity Method, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Standards, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 10. {{DEFAULTSORT:Atterberg, Albert 1846 births 1916 deaths Swedish chemists Geotechnical engineers Academic staff of Uppsala University People from Härnösand