Alexander Mitscherlich

Alexander Mitscherlich ( born May 28, 1836 in Berlin, † May 31, 1918 in Oberstdorf ) was a German chemist and entrepreneur. He is regarded as one of the inventors of the sulfite process, which enabled a better and cheaper production of pulp from timber.

Life

Training

Alexander Mitscherlich was born in 1836 as the youngest child of the then famous chemist Eilhard Mitscherlich in Berlin. In his birthplace in Dorotheenstraße wrong renowned scientists such as Alexander von Humboldt, who even Alexander's godfather was. This was already in school at the Friedrich -Wilhelms -Gymnasium and Köllnischen secondary school interest in chemistry and experimenting in the laboratory of his father. In his youth he took first trips abroad, such as to Paris.

In the winter semester 1857/1858 Mitscherlich began a study, first at the University of Göttingen, where he joined the fraternity Hannovera. Because his father did not want that he was influenced by other chemists, he studied medicine in Göttingen and returned to the semester back at the instigation of his father to Berlin. Now at the Friedrich- Wilhelms- University, he studied mainly chemistry at Eilhard Mitscherlich, but also heard lectures by professors such as Gustav Rose (mineralogy ), Ernst Eduard Kummer ( mathematics), Heinrich Wilhelm Dove and Heinrich Gustav Magnus (Physics). In 1861 he completed his studies with a doctorate on the minerals alunite and Loewigit.

In 1862 he became assistant to the chemist Friedrich Wöhler in Göttingen before spending some time resided in London and Cambridge and was in Paris by Adolphe Wurtz employees. When he learned that his father was seriously ill, he went in the spring of 1863 returned to Berlin and represented him in his lectures. After his habilitation on the father in August spectral analysis and the death Mitscherlich was a lecturer in experimental chemistry at the University of Berlin. In 1867 he was among the founders of the German Chemical Society. In 1868 he was finally appointed Professor of Inorganic Sciences at the newly founded Academy of Forestry in Hann Munden.

In Munden Mitscherlich gave lectures on chemistry, physics and geology. He had his own laboratory and an assistant and was initially satisfied with his position. When the Franco-German war broke out, Mitscherlich was a soldier in August 1870. He fought as a sergeant and officer until March 1871 in several French villages. On the way back he met Wilhelmina Höpker, whom he married shortly thereafter. Alexander Mitscherlich is the father of political scientist Waldemar Mitscherlich and grandfather of the psychoanalyst Alexander Mitscherlich.

Sulfitzellstoffverfahren

Soon after, his brother Oskar approached him. This was planning to build a pulp mill. Wood for paper production is processed by then usually with soda. So you could see the pulp fibers, which are needed for paper production, separated from other substances present in the wood. Mitscherlich, who immediately examined the method in his laboratory, but found out that this plant fibers are damaged. Looking for a new means to extract the pulp, he finally came across doppeltschwefligsauren lime. This material spared the fibers and was easier to obtain than soda. In addition, he won from the new process as waste products, which he wanted to use for tanning or for the prevention of fermentation and putrefaction.

1874 was Mitscherlich's brother, the invention in Luxembourg and England patent - a German Patent Office did not yet exist at the time - and soon after, Alexander was able to take the first paper produced by his new method in reception. Now, the researchers used a system worked out in minute detail in order to use the sulfite pulping process on a larger scale can. He found a cheap and feasible ways to produce the sulfur-containing cooking liquor and protect the pulp fibers after cooking. These steps for pulp production were later Mitscherlich's real capital.

Finally, the time was ripe for an own factory, which Mitscherlich built in Hann Munden since 1877. But after a short time he was having trouble. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry domains and told him to in 1881, the factory to sell, because the possession of a factory can not stand as a professor with Mitscherlich's position and his factory also caused damage to the inventory of the adjacent forest. Mitscherlich protested, whereupon the transfer was initially suspended indefinitely. Now, however, he got into trouble with Bernard Borggreve, the new director of the Forestry Academy, which he had probably made ​​by verschiedentliche provocations to the enemy. Borggreve wanted to achieve with the Ministry that Mitscherlich had to sell the factory or leave the academy of forestry by invective. 1883 finally Mitscherlich gave in, sold the factory, also gave his position at the Forest Academy and went as a private scholar to Freiburg im Breisgau. The factory he founded continued to produce successful pulp and remained until 1951 in operation.

The new method has not gone unnoticed in the scientific world. The purchase of the already developed in great detail, the process promised juicy profits. In 1879, Mitscherlich had to sell his new method to a competitor, followed by agreements with other interested parties. The new method spread in Germany, Europe and soon in North America. There about a million quintals of wood pulp were prepared by the method of Mitscherlich in 1894 already.

However, 1883 was Mitscherlich serious problems: Following a complaint some industrialists a court declared parts of his kingdom patent 4179 on the ground that it had been discovered that the American Benjamin Tilghman already 1866/67, a sulfite for the processing of pulp had patented. Mitscherlich appealed. He was - not only for economic reasons - to having invented the process is not only independent of Tilghman, but to also have been the first who had placed it on an industrially usable framework. However, the Supreme Court upheld the decision in 1884.

For the researcher had serious consequences. The buyer doubted concluded with Mitscherlich contracts and heard partially raised, to pay the sums agreed, arguing that they had paid for a patent which was no longer valid. Mitscherlich was judicially before it. He led nearly 30 processes until at least 1897 he agreed with some of the companies involved in a comparison. To compensate for the losses incurred, founded Mitscherlich 1893 in Hof an der Saale a factory in which he manufactured especially glue.

The town of Hann. Munden in 1936, named the street where stood his laboratory after him. After 1968 his former laboratory building the Grotefend -Gymnasium Munden had to give 1980 a memorial stone was erected.

Memberships

In the summer semester 1892 he was made an honorary member of the fraternity Franconia Freiburg.

Varia

In 1936 was founded on the occasion of the one hundredth birthday of Alexander Mitscherlich of Zellcheming the Alexander Mitscherlich Commemorative Medal to recognize outstanding achievements in the field of cellulose research. The first prize winner was Professor Dr. Walter Brecht, the longtime head of the Darmstadt Institute of Paper Technology.

Swell

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