Balard, Antoine Jerome

Balard, Antoine Jérôme 

Born Sept. 30, 1802, in Montpellier; died Mar. 30, 1876, in Paris. French chemist; member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1844).

Balard was a pharmacist, then a university professor in Montpellier and in Paris (beginning in 1842). In 1826, while Balard was studying the brines in Mediterranean salt mines, he discovered a new element that he named muride (from the Latin muria,“brine”). Soon afterward, J. L. Gay-Lussac renamed it bromine.

REFERENCE

Dumas, J. B. A. “Antoine Jéróme Balard.” In his book Discours et éloges académiques, vol. 2. Paris, 1885. Pages 81–114.