Henrik Teofilus Scheffer (December 28, 1710 – August 10, 1759) was a Swedish chemist notable for his contribution to the discovery of platinum.
[1][2] He was the son of Ivo Scheffer [sv] (secretary of the Swedish Board of Mines) and Gustafviana Sofia Ehrenstierna and was born in Stockholm.
[4][2] He then began work at the Swedish Board of Mines as an auskultant [sv] – an unpaid civil servant allowed to take part in the agency's negotiations – and studied under Georg Brandt.
[4] In addition to valuable essays in the journal Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar [sv] of the Academy of Sciences, Scheffer is notable for his 1752 survey of platinum, which at that time was proven to be a previously unknown noble metal, and the method of separating gold from silver by means of sulfuric acid.
His Chemical Lectures[5] (published by Torbern Bergman 1775, third edition 1796) was of considerable importance for the study of chemistry in Sweden.