Christian Friedrich Schönbein

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Christian Friedrich Schönbein
guncotton
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Basel

Christian Friedrich Schönbein

guncotton[2] and ozone.[3][4]

Life

Schönbein (Schoenbein) related to Michael Schoenbein was born at Metzingen in the Duchy of Württemberg. Around the age of 13 he was apprenticed to a chemical and pharmaceutical firm at Böblingen. Through his own efforts, he acquired sufficient scientific skills and knowledge to ask for, and receive, an examination by the professor of chemistry at Tübingen. Schönbein passed the exam and, after a series of moves and university studies, eventually acquired a position at the University of Basel in 1828, becoming a full professor in 1835. He remained there until his death in 1868, and was buried in Basel.[5]

Fuel cell

In 1839, Schönbein published the principle of the fuel cell in the "Philosophical Magazine".[citation needed]

Ozone

While doing experiments on the electrolysis of water at the University of Basel, Schönbein first began to notice a distinctive odor in his laboratory.[6] This smell gave Schönbein the clue to the presence of a new product from his experiments. Because of the pronounced smell, Schönbein coined the term "ozone" for the new gas, from the Greek word "ozein", meaning "to smell". Schönbein described his discoveries in publications in 1840.[7] He later found that the smell of ozone was similar to that produced by the slow oxidation of white phosphorus.[8]

The ozone smell Schönbein detected is the same as that occurring in the vicinity of lightning storms, an odor that indicates the presence of ozone in the atmosphere.[4]

Explosives

Although his wife had forbidden him to do so, Schönbein occasionally experimented at home in the kitchen. One day in 1845, when his wife was away, he spilled a mixture of

oxidized
.

Schönbein recognized the possibilities of the new compound. Ordinary black

guncotton
.

Attempts to manufacture guncotton for military use failed at first because the factories were prone to explode and, above all else, the burning speed of straight guncotton was always too high. It was not until 1884 that

Frederick Augustus Abel also managed to transform gelatinized guncotton into a safe mixture, called cordite
because it could be extruded into long thin cords before being dried.

Legacy

In 1990 an asteroid was named after him.[9]

Selected writings

Jöns Jakob Berzelius
and Christian Friedrich Schönbein 1836 1847, London 1900

See also

References

  1. ^ Renewable Energy: Sustainable Energy Concepts for the Energy Change, Roland Wengenmayr,Thomas Bührke]
  2. ^ A Most Damnable Invention: Dynamite, Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern ..., Stephen R. Bown
  3. ^ Atmospheric Chemistry, Ann M. Holloway,Richard Peer Wayne
  4. ^ a b Jacewicz, Natalie (2017). "A Killer of a Cure". Distillations. 3 (1): 34–37. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  5. doi:10.1021/ed006p432
    .
  6. ^ Schönbein, C. F. (1838–1840). "Lecture of 13 March 1839". Ber. Verh. Nat. Ges. Basel. 4: 58.
  7. ^ Schönbein, C. F. (1840). "On the Odour Accompanying Electricity and on the Probability of its Dependence on the Presence of a New Substance". Philosophical Magazine. 17: 293–294.
  8. ^ See, for example, Schönbein, C. F. (1844). "On the Production of Ozone by Chemical Means". Philosophical Magazine. 24: 466–467.
  9. ^ "IAU Minor Planet Center".
  10. ^ "Review of The Letters of Faraday and Schönbein edited by Georg W. A. Kahlbaum & Francis W. Darbishire". The Athenæum (3767): 20. 6 January 1900.

Further reading

External links

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