Bertram Borden Boltwood | |
|---|---|
 Boltwood at Yale 1917 | |
| Born | July 27, 1870 |
| Died | August 15, 1927 (aged 57) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Known for | Radiochemistry |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Radiochemistry |
Bertram Borden Boltwood (July 27, 1870 Amherst, Massachusetts – August 15, 1927, Hancock Point, Maine) was an American pioneer of radiochemistry.
Boltwood attended Yale University, became a professor there and in 1910 was appointed chair of the first academic department of radiochemistry.[1] He established that lead was the final decay product of uranium, noted that the lead-uranium ratio was greater in older rocks and, acting on a suggestion by Ernest Rutherford, was the first to measure the age of rocks by the decay of uranium to lead, in 1907. He got results of ages of 400 to 2200 million years, the first successful use of radioactive decay by Pb/U chemical dating. More recently, older mineral deposits have been dated to about 4.4 billion years old, close to the best estimate of the age of Earth.[2]
His work with the uranium decay series led to the discovery of the parent of radium, a new element that he named ionium. Once the existence of isotopes was established, ionium was shown to in fact be thorium-230.[3] Although Boltwood did not get his element on the periodic table, he later got a mineral namesake: Boltwoodite is named after him.[4]
In his later days, Boltwood suffered from depression and committed suicide on August 15, 1927.[5]
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