Intro/History:

Iodine was discovered by Bernard Courtois in 1811 in a chemical accident when he was separating saltpeter from algae using sulfuric acid. He accidentally put too much acid resulting in a big cloud of un-breathable purple gas. The gas then condensed on cold metallic surfaces forming little crumbly dark-purple rocks. Since he didn’t have the money to continue his research, he asked two scientist friends to do so. Both of them came up with the same results and had an argument about who had found it first. They finally settled on one decision; Courtois had discovered the new element.

(Return to TOC)