Franz Joseph M%C3%BCller von Reichenstein

FranzJoseph Mller Freiherr von Reichenstein or FranzJoseph Mller von Reichenstein was an Austrian mineralogist and mining engineer. Mller held several positions in the Habsburg Empire administration of mines and coinage in the Banat, Transylvania, and Tyrol. During his time in Transylvania he discovered tellurium in 1782. In his later career he became a member of the imperial council in Vienna and was knighted and elevated to the rank Freiherr in 1820.

Mller was born in 1740 or 1742 in the Habsburg Empire. While the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie givesJuly 1740 and Vienna as date and place of birth, the Neue Deutsche Biographie prefersOctober 1742 and the small town of Poysdorf in Lower Austria. The much older works Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen and Oesterreichische NationalEncyklopdie do not give a place of birth and only the year 1740 for his birth. Even articles by Mary Elvira Weeks on the discovery of tellurium, published in the Journal of Chemical Education in 1932, and 1935 quote two different locations of his birth one in Vienna and the other Hermannstadt Transylvania, present day Romania. A newer biography on the topic makes clear that date and place of birth are not definitely known.

Source: Wikipedia