Axel Vilhelmovich Gadolin (; 12June 1828 – 15December 1892) was a Finnish/Russian

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

, and also a scientist in the field of

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

and

crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...

. Gadolin was a professor at the Mikhailov Artillery Academy and the

Saint Petersburg Institute of Technology In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

, doctor of mineralogy from

Saint Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

, and

academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. Accor ...

of the

St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

. He was awarded the Lomonosov Prize in 1868 for his work on

crystallographic point group In crystallography, a crystallographic point group is a three-dimensional point group whose symmetry operations are compatible with a three-dimensional crystallographic lattice. According to the crystallographic restriction it may only contain o ...

Career

Gadolin was born in

Somero Somero () is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is part of the Southwest Finland regions of Finland, region in the provinces of Finland, province of Western Finland, located nort ...

in the

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

on 12June 1828. He was the nephew of the chemist

Johan Gadolin Johan Gadolin (5 June 176015 August 1852) was a Finnish chemist, physicist and mineralogist. Gadolin discovered a " new earth" containing the first rare-earth compound yttrium, which was later determined to be a chemical element. He is also con ...

. Gadolin combined his military career with a scientific career in mineralogy, crystallography, and artillery sciences. Gadolin received his initial education at the Finnish Cadet School. In 1847 he was a second lieutenant in the Russian artillery service. Gadolin graduated from the Mikhailov Artillery Academy in 1849 and remained their to teach; his initial appointment was as a lecturer in physics. He was appointed director of the artillery school in 1856 (and promoted to captain), and then professor in 1866. In 1859 he was promoted to colonel, and in 1866 to major general. While at the artillery school he developed techniques for building high velocity canons, which significantly increased the range that a shell could be propelled. In 1869 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of mineralogy by the council of

. In 1872 he became professor at

. Gadolin was promoted to lieutenant general in 1876.

Works

Gadolin published in the fields of artillery, mechanical engineering, metallurgy, mineralogy and crystallography. Gadolin's most famous scientific work is entitled ''Deduction of all Crystallographic Systems and their Subdivisions by Means of a Single General Principle''. It was first published in Russian in 1867, reprinted in 1954, translated into French in 1871, and German in 1896. In this work Gadolin used the

law of rational indices The law of rational indices is an Empirical research, empirical law in the field of crystallography concerning crystal structure. The law states that "when referred to three intersecting axes all faces occurring on a crystal can be described by n ...

to prove that only 2-, 3-, 4-, and 6-fold axes are possible in crystals. He showed that it is possible to derive all the crystallographically possible polyhedra by studying how the elements of symmetry can be combined. Gadolin showed that the resulting polyhedra can be divided into 32 classes varying by symmetry. Gadolin stated that two crystals should belong to the same class if they have the same symmetry elements, identically disposed. This is the foundation of the modern classification into geometric crystal classes. Although he predicted 32 crystal classes, Gadolin found only 20 examples in nature. Gadolin work was often cited as the most important source for the systematic derivation of the crystal classes without using the concepts of

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

Moritz Ludwig Frankenheim Moritz Ludwig Frankenheim (29 June 1801 – 14 January 1869) was a German physicist, geographer, and crystallographer. Life and education Moritz Ludwig Frankenheim was born in 1801 in Brunswick. His family was Jewish. Ismar Schorsch, '' L ...

in 1826 and

Johann F. C. Hessel Johann Friedrich Christian Hessel (27 April 1796 – 3 June 1872) was a German physician (MD, University of Würzburg, 1817) and professor of mineralogy (PhD, University of Heidelberg, 1821) at the University of Marburg. Contributions to Minera ...

in 1830 had found the 32 crystal classes. Gadolin, who was unaware of the work of his predecessors, found them independently using

stereographic projection In mathematics, a stereographic projection is a perspective transform, perspective projection of the sphere, through a specific point (geometry), point on the sphere (the ''pole'' or ''center of projection''), onto a plane (geometry), plane (th ...

to represent the symmetry elements of the 32 groups. Gadolin's work had a clarity that attracted widespread attention, and caused Hessel's earlier work to be neglected. Gadolin influenced the later crystallographic work of Paul Groth. In 1883

Evgraf Fedorov Evgraf Stepanovich Fedorov (, – 21 May 1919) was a Russian mathematician, crystallographer and mineralogist. Fedorov was born in the Russian city of Orenburg. His father was a topographical engineer. The family later moved to Saint Petersb ...

completed his ''Elements of the theory of figures''; Gadolin assisted in its eventual publication in 1885. Fedorov and

Arthur Moritz Schoenflies Arthur Moritz Schoenflies (; 17 April 1853 – 27 May 1928), sometimes written as Schönflies, was a German mathematician, known for his contributions to the application of group theory to crystallography, and for work in topology. Schoenflies ...

added new symmetry elements such as

glide reflection In geometry, a glide reflection or transflection is a geometric transformation that consists of a reflection across a hyperplane and a translation ("glide") in a direction parallel to that hyperplane, combined into a single transformation. Bec ...

to those considered by Gadolin; using these new symmetry elements they enumerated the 230

space group In mathematics, physics and chemistry, a space group is the symmetry group of a repeating pattern in space, usually in three dimensions. The elements of a space group (its symmetry operations) are the rigid transformations of the pattern that ...

s in three dimensions in 1891. Gadolin's mineral collection is held at the

Finnish Museum of Natural History The Finnish Museum of Natural History (, ), established in 1988, is a research institution under the University of Helsinki in Finland, based in Helsinki, Finland. It is a natural history museum responsible for the national botanical, zoological, ...

Honours and awards

Military

Gadolin was the recipient of numerous military awards. *

Order of Saint Anna The Imperial Order of Saint Anna (; also "Order of Saint Anne" or "Order of Saint Ann") was a Holstein ducal and then Russian imperial order of chivalry. It was established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, on 14 February 1735, in hono ...

, 3rd class, 1859; 2nd class, 1864; 1st class 1872 * Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class 1862; 3rd class 1868; 2nd class 1875 *

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

, commander (3rd class), 1867 (France) *

Order of Saint Stanislaus The Order of Saint Stanislaus (, ), also spelled Stanislas, was a Polish order of knighthood founded in 1765 by King Stanisław August Poniatowski of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It remained under the Congress Poland, Kingdom of Pola ...

, 1st class, 1870 *

Order of St. George The Order of Saint George () is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation. It was originally established on 26 November 1769 Julian (7 December 1769 Gregorian) as the highest military decoration of the Russian Empire for commiss ...

, 4th class, 1871 * Order of the White Eagle, 1879 *

Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky The Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky was an order of chivalry of the Russian Empire first awarded on by Empress Catherine I of Russia. History The introduction of the Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky was envisioned by Emperor ...

, 1884 *

Order of the Sword The Royal Order of the Sword (officially: ''Royal Order of the Sword''; Swedish: ''Kungliga Svärdsorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry and military decoration created by King Frederick I of Sweden on 23 February 1748, together with the Or ...

, commander grand cross (1st class), 1885 (Sweden)

Academic

* Lomonosov Prize, 1868 for his work on

s *

, honorary doctorate of mineralogy, 1869 *

, corresponding member, 1873; extraordinary academician, 1875; full academician, 1890 * The mineral Axelite was named in honour of Axel Gadolin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gadolin, Axel Vilhelmovich 1828 births 1892 deaths Crystallographers Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Finnish military personnel Imperial Russian lieutenant generals Finnish mineralogists Russian mineralogists Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Fourth Degree Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class Commanders of the Legion of Honour Commanders Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword