Jacob Volhard

Jacob Volhard ( born June 4, 1834 in Darmstadt, † January 14, 1910 in Halle / Saale ) was a German chemist.

Life

Volhard studied philology and history at the Ludwigs- University in Giessen, before moving with his uncle Justus von Liebig to chemistry. During his studies, he became involved in a Christian circle of friends, from the August 15, 1852 was the Giessen Wingolf; so Volhard became one of the founder of the Gießen Wingolf and in 1854 the first Fuxmajor.

After the departure of Liebig in Giessen to Munich in the winter semester 1852/53 Volhard studied with his successor Henry Will. In 1855 he received a doctorate in phil. and moved to Heidelberg in the laboratory of Robert Bunsen. Volhard took the chemistry initially not very serious, he devoted himself in Heidelberg continues to philology and history. He joined the Heidelberg Wingolf.

Justus von Liebig took the very talented Volhard in 1856 as an assistant in his Munich institute, but also Volhard was not constantly in the lab, he often stayed at the sociable so-called " pranks " around the painter Franz von Lenbachplatz and the sculptor Lawrence Gedon on and kept company with Moritz von Schwind and Paul Heyse.

His actual career began as a researcher Volhard through his stay with August Wilhelm von Hofmann in London in 1858 and Adolph Kolbe at Marburg. In 1869 he was appointed as associate professor in Munich, where he 1872-79 the inorganic Division conducted. After a short time in Erlangen, he was appointed in 1881 as full professor at the University of Halle, where he established a new pattern valid institute building and was from 1882 to 1908 Director of the Chemical Institute in 1897 and rector of the University of Halle. In 1900 he became President of the German Chemical Society and 1901 Honorary Member of the Society of German Chemists.

Volhard dedicated to his teacher Justus von Liebig in 1909 whose first biography for the Liebig research is essential today. Many years he was editor of the famous " Annalen der Chemie " (from 1871-1910 ) and Vice President of Leopoldina, to which he belonged from 1883. In 1900 he was elected for one year on the board of the German Chemical Society. Volhard was a great educationalist and his manuscript to guide the qualitative analysis was in Germany for decades into a passed- standard work of studying chemistry and finally published in 1875 ( called "The Little Volhard "). Volhard was particularly known for his humor and his Darmstadt dialect he unclouded used to old age; as a student were his drawn cartoons popular and feared. A still more common ( in chemist circles ) aphorism comes from Volhard: " The Indigo Blue runs like a red thread through the history of organic chemistry."

Volhard died highly honored in 1910 and was buried in the St. Lawrence Cemetery; his bust still decorates the old Chemical Institute in Halle. Justus v. Liebig said about Volhard: " I've never had an assistant who was so well educated as he is. "

Among the students Volhards include Johannes Thiele, Rudolf Schenck, foreshores Daniel (1867-1941) and Hermann Staudinger. His son Franz Volhard was a significant internist and nephrologist; a health clinic at the University Hospital Giessen still bears his name today.

Scientific discoveries

  • Synthesis of sarcosine 1862
  • Synthesis of creatine and presentation of guanidine and cyanamide 1868
  • Synthesis of Pulvinsäure and Vulpinsäure
  • Determination of manganese in 1879
  • Bromination of carboxylic acids ( Hell-Volhard - Zelinsky reaction) 1881-87
  • Thiophensynthese ( Volhard - Erdmann cyclization ) 1885
  • Volumetric determination of silver, the cyanides, halides and thiocyanate (so-called titration according to Volhard )

Important works

  • About polyatomic ureas ( On the ureas of the diamine ), London 1861
  • The chemical theory, Habilitation Thesis Munich, 1863, printed 1863 Braunschweig limited preview on Google Book Search
  • The justification of chemistry by Lavoisier, Leipzig 1870
  • Volhards manual for qualitative analysis (ed. Clemens Zimmermann) Munich 1875
  • Experiments in General Chemistry and Introduction to Chemical Analysis ( together with C. Zimmermann), Baltimore 1887
  • August Wilhelm von Hofmann - A picture of life (along with Emil Fischer) 1902
  • Justus von Liebig - His life and work, Vol 2, Leipzig 1909
Hermann Kolbe Hell–Volhard–Zelinsky halogenation Hermann Emil Fischer Integrated Authority File
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