Antal Ruprecht

Antal Ruprecht (1748–1818) was a Hungarian Chemist.

He was born in Szomolnok, Hungary in 1748. He graduated from the Mining Academy of Selmecbánya where he later became a professor of chemistry and metallurgy in 1779. He was the first to melt platinum and contributed to the discovery of tellurium in 1784.^[1][2] Ruprecht was the first to theorise that alkaline earth metals were compounds rather than elements; later proved by Humphry Davy.^[3] This theory caused some controversy in the chemistry community due to the previous assumption of earths being fundamental substances.^[4]