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WOHLER, FRIEDRICH (1800-1882)
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See also:WOHLER, See also:FRIEDRICH (1800-1882) , See also:German chemist, was See also:born at Eschersheim, near See also:Frankfort-on-the-See also:Main, on the 31st of See also:July 1800. In 1814 he began to attend the gymnasium at Frankfort, where he carried out experiments with his friend Dr J. J. C. See also:Buch. In 182o he entered See also:Marburg University, and next See also:year removed to See also:Heidelberg, where he worked in See also:Leopold See also:Gmelin's laboratory. Intending to practise as a physician, he took his degree in See also:medicine and See also:surgery (1823), but was persuaded by Gmelin to devote himself to See also:chemistry. He studied in See also:Berzelius's laboratory at See also:Stockholm, and there began a lifelong friendship with the See also:Swedish chemist. On his return he had proposed to See also:settle as a Privatdozent at Heidelberg, but accepted the See also:post of teacher of chemistry in the newly established technical school (Gewerbeschule) in See also:Berlin (1825), where he remained till 1831. Private affairs then called him to See also:Cassel, where he soon became See also:professor at the higher technical school. In 1836 he was appointed to the See also:chair of chemistry in the medical See also:faculty at See also:Gottingen, holding also the See also:office of inspector-See also:general of pharmacies in the See also:kingdom of See also:Hanover. This professorship he held until his See also:death on the 23rd of See also:September 1882. Wohler had made the acquaintance of See also:Liebig, his junior by three years, in 1825, and the two men remained See also:close See also:friends and See also:allies for the See also:rest of their lives. Together they carried out a number of See also:joint researches. One of the earliest, if not the earliest, was the investigation, published in 183o, which proved the polymerism of cyanic and cyanuric See also:acid, but the most famous were those on the oil of See also:bitter almonds (See also:benzaldehyde) and the radicle benzoyl (1832), and on uric acid (1837), which are of fundamental importance in the See also:history of organic chemistry. But it was the achievement of Wohler alone, in 1828, to break down the barrier held to exist between organic and inorganic chemistry by artificially preparing See also:urea, one of those substances which up to that See also:time it had been thought could only be produced through the agency of " vital force." Most of his See also:work, however, See also:lay in the domain of inorganic chemistry. The See also:isolation of the elementary bodies and the investigation of their properties was one of his favourite pursuits. In 1827 he obtained metallic See also:aluminium as a See also:fine See also:powder, and in 1845 improved methods enabled him to get it in fully metallic globules. Nine years after-wards H. P. Sainte-Claire Deville, ignorant of what he had done, adopted the same methods in his efforts to prepare the See also:metal on an See also:industrial See also:scale; the result of WOhler's claim of priority was that the two became See also:good friends and joined in a See also:research, published in 1856–1857, which yielded " adamantine See also:boron." By the same method as had succeeded with aluminium (reduction of the chloride by See also:potassium) Wohler in 1828 obtained metallic See also:beryllium and See also:yttrium. Later, in 1849, See also:titanium engaged his See also:attention, and, proving that what had up to that time passed as the metal was really a cyanonitride, he showed how the true metal was to be obtained. He also worked at the nitrides, and in 1857 with H. See also:Buff carried out an inquiry on the compounds of See also:silicon in which they prepared the previously unknown See also:gas, silicon hydride or silicuretted See also:hydrogen. A problem to which he returned repeatedly was that of separating See also:nickel and See also:cobalt from their ores and freeing them from See also:arsenic; and in the course of his See also:long laboratory practice he worked out numerous processes for the preparation of pure chemicals and methods of exact See also:analysis. The Royal Society's See also:Catalogue enumerates 276 See also:separate See also:memoirs written by him, apart from 43 in which he collaborated with others. In 1831 he published Grundriss der anorganischen Chemie, and in 184o Grundriss der organischen Chemie, both of which went through many See also:editions. Still more valuable for teaching purposes was his Mineralanalyse in Beispielen (1861), which first appeared in 1853 as Praktische Ubungen in der chemischen Analyse. Chemists also had to thank him for translating three editions of the Lehrbuch of Berzelius and all the successive volumes of the Jahresbericht into German from the See also:original Swedish. He assisted Liebig and See also:Poggendorff in the Handworterbuch der reinen and angewandten Chemie, and was joint-editor with Liebig of the Annalen der Chemie and Pharmacie. A memoir by See also:Hofmann appeared in the Ber. dent. chem. Gesellsch. (1882), reprinted in Zur Erinnerung an vorangegangene Freunde (1888). Additional information and Commentswho is the original author
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