Robert Wilhelm Bunsen
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
The German scientist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, is still well loved today as the inventor of the Bunsen burner named with him. He also developed an antidote for arsenic poisoning and an electrolytic method for producing hard magnesium. With the physicist Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, he founded the spectroscopy. Bunsen made vital donations to the organic-inorganic, analytical and physical chemistry and the mineralogy and geology …
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen was born on 31 March 1811 in Göttingen, the son of a university professor born.
Bunsen studied with high school knowledge at the University of Gottingen, where his father taught. In 1831 he completed his studies in chemistry and physics with a doctorate. He then embarked on an extensive study tour. With his return, Professor Bunsen habilitated in 1834. During this time led by Bunsen experiments with arsenic compounds, in which he made the discovery that iron oxide precipitates arsenic compounds. So he could renovate an antidote for arsenic poisoning. During the depression of his attempts, which he applied also to organic compounds, he came upon the realization that the radicals determine the character of a compound.
In 1835, Bunsen took a job as a chemistry teacher at a vocational school in Kassel. In 1839 he was appointed professor at the University of Marburg. There he devoted himself to the problems of the electrochemistry. As part of his scientific work, he developed an electrolytic method to obtain hard magnesium. 1846, Bunsen took part in an expedition to Iceland. 1851 Bunsen spent a year at the University of Breslau. There he became acquainted with the physicist Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, which developed into one of friendship. The two scientists succeeded in a fruitful collaboration. So they focused on common problems in photochemistry.
In 1952 Bunsen succeeded on appeal to the chemical faculty of the University of Heidelberg. Two years later, with his colleague Kirchhoff. At this time designed the Bunsen Bunsen burner named with him. The device was originally used as a heater, but it soon emerged that the gas burner, for example, is suitable for spectral analysis in the laboratory. Bunsen and Kirchhoff succeeded with the help of the burner, the practical justification of spectroscopy. With various salts, which they brought into the gas burner flame, they produced light that they dissected optically by means of prisms. From their experiments, they found the laws of absorption and emission.
Bunsen and Kirchhoff spectroscope constructed by means of which they learned the element cesium in 1860 and a year later, the element rubidium. Bunsen proved to be a clever inventor of several other scientific apparatus and instruments such as the water jet pump, the thermostat, the Bunsen ice calorimeter, or the valve. He also renewed the methods of measurement in the blast furnace technology. Bunsen is not only considered one of the most versatile, but also as one of the most vital chemists and scientists of the 19th Century. His achievements in the field of organic-inorganic, analytical and physical chemistry and mineralogy, and geology are significant and sometimes groundbreaking.
It was only with his spectral analysis to determine the chemical composition of celestial bodies possible.
Robert Bunsen died on 16 Dignified 1899 in Heidelberg.
Tags: Analytical And Physical Chemistry, Arsenic Compounds, Arsenic Poisoning, Bunsen Burner, Chemical Faculty, Chemistry Teacher, Electrochemistry, Electrolytic Method, Fruitful Collaboration, German Scientist, Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, High School Science, Iron Oxide, Organic Compounds, Photochemistry, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, University Of Gottingen, University Of Heidelberg, University Of Marburg, Vocational School
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