Hermann Kolbe
Hermann Kolbe | |
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[Note, not primary advisor for all in this list] |
Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (27 September 1818 – 25 November 1884
Life
Kolbe was born in Elliehausen, near
In 1842, he became an assistant to Robert Bunsen at the Philipps-Universität Marburg. He took his doctoral degree in 1843 at the same university. A new opportunity arose in 1845, when he became assistant to Lyon Playfair at the new Museum of Economic Geology in London and a close friend of Edward Frankland. From 1847, he was engaged in editing the Handwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten Chemie (Dictionary of Pure and Applied Chemistry) edited by Justus von Liebig, Wöhler, and Johann Christian Poggendorff, and he also wrote an important textbook. In 1851, Kolbe succeeded Bunsen as professor of chemistry at Marburg and, in 1865, he was called to the Universität Leipzig. In 1864, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.[2] He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1874.[3]
In 1853, he married Charlotte, the daughter of General-Major Wilhelm von Bardeleben. His wife died in 1876 after 23 years of happy marriage. They had four children.
Work in chemical research
As late as the 1840s, and despite Friedrich Wöhler's synthesis of urea in 1828, some chemists still believed in the doctrine of vitalism, according to which a special life-force was necessary to create "organic" (i.e., in its original meaning, biologically derived) compounds. Kolbe promoted the idea that organic compounds could be derived from substances clearly sourced from outside this "organic" context, directly or indirectly, by substitution processes. (Hence, while by modern definitions, he was converting one organic molecule to another, by the parlance of his era, he was converting "inorganic"—anorganisch—substances into "organic" ones only thought accessible through vital processes.) He validated his theory by converting carbon disulfide (CS2) to acetic acid (CH3COOH) in several steps (1843–45). Kolbe also introduced a modified idea of structural radicals, so contributing to the development of structural theory. A dramatic success came when his theoretical prediction of the existence of secondary and tertiary alcohols was confirmed by the synthesis of the first of these classes of organic molecules. Kolbe was the first person to use the word synthesis in its present-day meaning,[4] and contributed a number of new chemical reactions.[1]
In particular, Kolbe developed procedures for the
Work as journal editor
Besides his work for
His rejection of structural chemistry, especially the theories of the structure of benzene by
«...Baeyer is an excellent experimentor, but he is only an empiricist, lacking sense and capability, and his interpretations of his experiments show particular deficiency in his familiarity with the principles of true science...»[1][13]
The violence of his language worked to limit his posthumous reputation.[14]
Publications
- Untersuchungen über die Elektrolyse organischer Verbindungen. Edinburgh: Livingstone. 1947.
Sources
- Rocke, Alan J. (1993). The Quiet Revolution: Hermann Kolbe and the Science of Organic Chemistry. ISBN 978-0-520-08110-9.
- von Meyer, E. (1884). "Zur Erinnerung an Hermann Kolbe". Journal für Praktische Chemie. 30 (1): 417–467. .
Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e Alan J. Rocke. "Hermann Kolbe – German chemist". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-520-08110-9.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
- . From pp. 145–146: "Im Gegensatz zu den bis jetzt bekannten gepaarten organischen Säuren, welche durch Zersetzung organischer Materien von meist complicierter Zusammensetzung unter Einwirkung kräftiger Agentien und unter Verhältnissen entstanden sind, welche eine mehrfache Auslegung der Zersetzungserscheinungen gestatten, werden diejenigen, welche den Gegenstand der nachstehenden Betrachtungen ausmachen, durch Synthese aus Körpern von möglichst einfacher Zusammensetzung gebildet, so daß sie uns über ihre Constitution kaum im Zweifel lassen, und können deshalb gewissermaßen als Prototypen jener Körperreihe angesehen werden." (In contrast to the paired organic acids known until now, which have been formed by the decomposition of organic matter of the most complicated composition during the reaction of strong agencies and under conditions that admit multiple interpretations of decomposition phenomena, those [compounds] that constitute the object of the following observations are formed by synthesis from substances of the simplest possible composition, so that they leave us hardly in doubt about their constitution, and thus can be viewed in a way as prototypes of those series of substances.)
- .
- .
- .
- ^ "Kolbe-Schmitt Reaction". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ^ Electrochemical Dictionary
- ^ "Kolbe Nitrile Synthesis". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ^ "Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe – developer of Kolbe synthesis". 11 June 2015. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ^ "Books by Hermann Kolbe". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- .
- ^ "Today In Science History – September 27 – Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe". 27 September 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
Further reading
- Kurzes Lehrbuch der Chemie . 1.Anorganische Chemie . Vieweg, Braunschweig 2. verb. Aufl. 1884 Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
- Wiley online library: Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis, ultimate descendant of the Journal für Praktische Chemie, accessed 2 July 2014.
- Journal für Praktische Chemie, the article on the original German journal and its descendants, German Wikipedia, accessed 2 July 2014.
External links
- Translations English Translation of Kolbe's seminal 1860 German article in Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie. English title: "On the syntheses of salicylic acid"; German title "Ueber Synthese der Salicylsäure".