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Person

Clemens Winkler

A man with a neatly groomed beard and mustache, dressed in formal attire, stands against a warm-toned background, exuding an air of scholarly respectability.

German analytical chemist (1838–1904) at the Freiberg Mining Academy in Saxony. In 1885 a local miner brought him a sample of a previously unknown silver-bearing ore, argyrodite, whose composition refused to add up. Winkler spent months on it and in 1886 isolated germanium, the element that completed Mendeleev's eka-silicon prediction. He named it for his country and corresponded warmly with Mendeleev about the match.

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