Torbern Bergman

Torbern Olof Bergman was a Swedish chemist and mineralogist, born in 1735, who studied at Uppsala University and became its professor of chemistry. He is noted for his 1775 Dissertation on Elective Attractions, which contained the largest chemical affinity tables then published, and he was the first chemist to use the A, B, C system of notation for chemical species. He advanced quantitative analysis, devised a mineral classification based on chemical characteristics and appearance, studied the chemistry of metals, especially bismuth and nickel, and coined the name ammonia in 1782. He perfected a process for making carbonated water in 1771 and sponsored Carl Wilhelm Scheele. He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1764 and to the Royal Society in 1765, and died in 1784.