Lothar Meyer

Meyer’s work on the periodic table paralleled Mendeleev’s, while lacking some of the Russian’s crucial insights; Mendeleev, wary of Meyer, eventually warmed to him — Meyer translated for him on a Manchester visit. Virchow, Bunsen and Kirchhoff all taught him, Virchow before he turned to chemistry. He was close to Kekulé (who initiated the conference where Cannizzaro’s ideas so forcibly struck him), and to Baeyer, Strecker and Roscoe (all working in Bunsen’s labs at the same time). The future Nobel-winner Arrhenius, finding his work unappreciated, wrote to Meyer and got warm encouragement in return.