Editing Johan August Arfwedson (section)

== Life and work ==

Arfwedson belonged to a wealthy bourgeois family, the son of the wholesale merchant and factory owner Jacob Arfwedson and his spouse, Anna Elisabeth Holtermann. The younger Arfwedson matriculated as a student at the [[Uppsala University|University of Uppsala]] in 1803 (at the time, matriculating at a young age was common for aristocratic and wealthy students), completed a degree in Law in 1809 and a second degree in [[mineralogy]] in 1812. In the latter year, he received an unpaid position in the Royal Board of Mines, where he advanced to the position of notary (still without a salary) in 1814.

In [[Stockholm]], Arfwedson knew the chemist [[Jöns Jakob Berzelius]] and received access to his private laboratory, where he discovered the element [[lithium]] in 1817, during analysis of the mineral [[petalite]].<ref>{{cite journal | author = Berzelius | year = 1817 | title = Ein neues mineralisches Alkali und ein neues Metall |trans-title=A new mineral alkali and a new metal | journal = Journal für Chemie und Physik | volume = 21 | pages = 44–48  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kAsAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA44 }}  From page 45:  ''"Herr ''August Arfwedson'', ein junger sehr verdienstvoller Chemiker, der seit einem Jahre in meinem Laboratorie arbeitet, fand bei einer Analyse des Petalits von Uto's Eisengrube, einen alkalischen Bestandtheil, …  Wir haben es ''Lithion'' genannt, um dadurch auf seine erste Entdeckung im Mineralreich anzuspielen, da die beiden anderen erst in der organischen Natur entdeckt wurden.  Sein Radical wird dann Lithium genannt werden."'' (Mr. ''August Arfwedson'', a young, very meritorious chemist, who has worked in my laboratory for a year, found during an analysis of petalite from Uto's iron mine, an alkaline component …  We've named it ''lithion'', in order to allude thereby to its first discovery in the mineral realm, since the two others were first discovered in organic nature.  Its radical will then be named "lithium".)</ref> The actual isolation of lithium metal would be done by others.

In 1818 and 1819, Arfwedson made a European journey, partly in the society of Berzelius. After coming home, Arfwedson built his own laboratory on his estate. He spent the larger part of his remaining life administering and multiplying his inherited wealth.

He was elected a member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] in 1821.

The rare [[mineral]] [[arfvedsonite]] was named after him.