Alfred Des Cloizeaux facts for kids
Alfred Louis Olivier Legrand Des Cloizeaux (born October 17, 1817, died May 6, 1897) was a famous French scientist who studied minerals. He was known as a mineralogist. This means he was an expert in understanding rocks and minerals.
Contents
Discovering the World of Minerals
Early Life and Learning
Alfred Des Cloizeaux was born in a town called Beauvais, in France. He went to the Collège de France and studied with a smart teacher named Jean-Baptiste Biot. Later, he became a professor. He taught about minerals at important schools in Paris, like the École Normale Supérieure and the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.
His Scientific Adventures
Des Cloizeaux loved to explore. He studied the amazing geysers in Iceland. Geysers are like natural hot water fountains that shoot steam and water into the air! He also wrote about different kinds of eruptive rocks, which are rocks formed from volcanoes.
Unlocking Crystal Secrets
His most important work was looking closely at crystals. Crystals are solid materials where the atoms are arranged in a very organized, repeating pattern. He studied how light behaved when it passed through crystals. This is called their optical properties. He also looked at something called light polarization, which is about how light waves vibrate.
He even showed that a mineral called cinnabar has a special kind of light behavior called circular polarization.
Discovering New Minerals
Des Cloizeaux was very good at figuring out different types of feldspars. Feldspars are a common group of minerals found in rocks. He is known for discovering a mineral called microcline. This is a type of feldspar that contains potash and has a unique crystal shape (called triclinic).
He also named other minerals, like montebrasite in 1871. Another mineral, called descloizite, was named in his honor by a fellow scientist, Alexis Damour, in 1854.
Awards and Books
Des Cloizeaux was recognized for his important work. He became a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1869 and was even its President in 1889. He also received the Wollaston Medal from the Geological Society of London in 1886, which is a very important award for geologists.
He wrote several books about his studies. His most famous books are Leçons de cristallographie (published in 1861) and Manuel de minéralogie (which came out in two parts in 1862 and 1874, with a later edition in 1893). These books helped many other scientists learn about crystals and minerals.
