Franz Karl Achard
Franz Karl Achard | |
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geoscience | |
Academic advisors | Andreas Sigismund Marggraf |
Franz Karl Achard (28 April 1753 – 20 April 1821) was a German (
Life and work
Achard was born in Berlin, the son of preacher Max Guillaume Achard, a descendant of
Achard was a favourite of King
In 1776 Achard was elected to the
For his discoveries in the acclimatisation of tobacco to Germany, the king granted him a lifetime pension of 500 taler. Achard was also esteemed by Frederick William II of Prussia.
Achard revived the discovery by Marggraf in 1747 that sugar beets contained sugar, and devised a process to produce sugar from sugar beets. Beginning in 1789, he planted various sugar-bearing plants on his manor in
In 1801, with the support of King
English sugar merchants offered Achard 200,000 taler to declare his experiments a failure but he refused. With Achard's discovery, sugar was no longer a luxury product, but local production became a necessity, due to the embargoes. Achard taught classes to have a large number of sugar beet growers and the specially developed sugar beets became available for everyone. Achard described the sugar beet as, "one of the most bountiful gifts which the devine munificence had awarded to man on earth."[6]
In 1794, Achard built an
Due to Archard's financial difficulties as a result of several fires in 1807, his refineries were declared bankrupt in 1815. He died, destitute, in 1821 in Wohlau. His life's work was carried on mainly by French industrialists such as at the refineries of Matthias Christian Rabbethge. In mid 19th century America, Achard's grandson Anton William Waldemar Achard successfully promoted beet sugar production in Michigan according to a later descendant, Emil Lockwood,[7] son of Mabel Pauline Achard.[8]
Publications
- Lectures on Experimental Philosophy 4 vol., 1792
- Abhandlung über die Bereitung des Zuckers aus der in vielen Provinzen allerhöchst - Dero Staaten, als Viehfutter häufig angebauten Runkelrübe, nebst den dazu gehörigen Belägen und Proben des Runkelrübenzuckers [Treatise on the preparation of sugar from the sugar beet, which is often cultivated as fodder in many provinces of your highness's states, together with the related documentation and samples of beet sugar], Berlin, 1799
- Anleitung zur Bereitung des Rohzuckers aus Rüben [Guide to the preparation of raw sugar from beets], Berlin, 1800
- Kurze Geschichte der Beweise der Ausführbarkeit im Großen der Zuckerfabrication aus Runkelrüben [Brief history of the proof of the feasibility of the large scale production of sugar from sugar beets], Berlin, 1800
- Anleitung zum Anbau der Runkelrüben [Guide to the cultivation of sugar beets], Breslau, 1803
- Über den Einfluß der Runkelrübenzuckerfabrication auf die Ökonomie [On the influence on the economy of the production of sugar from sugar beets], Glogau, 1805
- Die europäische Zuckerfabrication aus Runkelrüben [European sugar production from sugar beets], Leipzig, 1812
References
- ^ Achard (1799) "Procédé d'extraction du sucre de bette" (Process for extracting sugar from beets), Annales de Chimie, 32 : 163-168.
- PMID 13086516.
- ^ "Mitglieder". Archived from the original on 2018-08-07. Retrieved 2018-08-07.
- ^ Sugar Beet Factory at Gut Kunern
- ISBN 0-550-18022-2, page 6
- ^ The Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol I, London, George Woodfall and Son, 1847, p.119.
- ^ Mills, James Cook, History of Saginaw County Michigan (Seeman & Peters Publishers, 1918), 467, as cited in MAN IN MOTION: Michigan's Legendary Senate Majority Leader, Emil Lockwood by Stanley C. and Marilyn H. Fedewa (Llumina/MSU Press, 2003), 10-11
- ^ Fedewa, MAN IN MOTION, 15, 240.
Further reading
- Gough, J. B. (1970). "Achard, Franz Karl". ISBN 0-684-10114-9.
External links
- Achard, Franz Karl - Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (German)
- Zuckermuseum Berlin (German)