Carl Auer von Welsbach

Carl Freiherr Auer von Welsbach ( born September 1, 1858 in Vienna, † August 4, 1929 in Mölbling, Carinthia ) was an Austrian chemist and entrepreneur.

He gained merits as a discoverer of four chemical elements neodymium, praseodymium, ytterbium and lutetium, and as the inventor of the gas mantle light ( " Auer light " ), the metal filament lamp and of flint ( " Auermetall ") in the lighter. He founded the Treibacher Industries and the Auer -Gesellschaft in Berlin and is the creator of the OSRAM brand.

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Life and work

Origin

His father Alois Auer von Welsbach came from a modest background and had the book printing trade learned. The father was from 1841 to 1864 director of the k.k. Court and State Printing Office in Vienna. This was under his leadership to a company of world renown. Alois invented the nature print, press the quick and automatic copper printing press. Because of his contributions, he was raised two years after the birth of his son Carl to the peerage and received the title of Welsbach, which at the home of the family, catfish, pointing. Early on, he recognized the talent of his son Carl.

Curriculum vitae

Auer studied in Vienna and Heidelberg chemistry. There, in the laboratory of Professor Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, he began with studies of the rare earth metals. After receiving his doctorate in May 1882 he returned to Vienna, where he continued this work. Here he had an equally prominent teacher in Adolf loved ones, in whose institute he began to work. He could disassemble the Didym 1885, which had previously been regarded as an element in the elements neodymium and praseodymium through many repeated fractional crystallization.

In his work he watched the lights of rare earth compounds in the flame of the Bunsen burner. When soaked cotton threads with their salt solutions and the dried filaments burned remained a framework consisting of the oxides, which shows a strong reflectance. So invented Auer 1885 mantle, as Auer trump known which substantially improved the then already known gas lighting, as you could get much better light yields with lower gas consumption. After Auer had optimized the composition (originally magnesium or zirconium, lanthanum and yttrium oxide, then thorium and cerium oxide ), incandescent gaslight was ( contemporary called " Auer light " ) superior to all the known sources of light: it was not only significantly lighter than candle or kindling, but was also cheaper than other gas lamps or electric carbon filament lamp. So it was a success economically. Nevertheless, Auer also dealt with the electric light 1898 left he patented the first practical metal filament lamp. He developed a technique for the production of wires of osmium (patent 1890), which was regarded as the metal with the highest melting point ( tungsten melt at higher temperatures).

In 1903 he invented the flint which is not a brittle stone, but a ductile metal alloy of cerium and iron, are lifted by scraping, mostly through the by milling acting Zündrädchen chips from the resulting hot and catch fire on air itself. In 1907 he brought appropriate lighters on the market, and also today's lighters with flint based on Auer's mischmetal. The name alludes to Flint had hitherto been used brittle minerals, which give by hitting with stone or steel sparking Splitter - see also flint, marcasite.

1905 discovered Auer - regardless of Georges Urbain - the elements ytterbium and lutetium.

On March 10, 1906 Carl Auer von Welsbach announced the OSRAM trademark for the goods Electric incandescent and arc lamps at the then Imperial Patent Office in Berlin.

Family and private life

In 1899 he married Marie Nimpfer, with whom he had four children.

Carl Auer von Welsbach in 1893 acquired Geistinger by actress Marie Lock staple box with Villa Marienhof, in its place he built Castle Welsbach, in Mölbling and acquired by Bunsen's death the library of his teacher.

Although he left banal everyday activities dependable employees ( see, eg, Adolf Gallia ), but was himself the personification of a researcher and scholar - a systematic and disciplined worker who was frugal with words and written statements.

Honors

• Emperor Franz Joseph I got Carl Auer 1901 in a baron.
• In 1920 he was awarded the Siemens Ring
• In 1921 he received the Wilhelm Exner Medal

Tributes

• His portrait was depicted on a 25 -shilling silver coin, the 20 -shilling bill of 1956 and on a 1.50 -shilling stamp.
• Since 2008, the University of Vienna writes a Auer von Welsbach scholarship from.
• In Vienna, Rudolf -Fuenfhaus ( 15th District ), former Schönbrunn Vorpark was renamed before 1933 in Auer - Welsbach - Park; to 1992, he was part of the 14th district. In Vienna Liesing ( 23rd District ) is (since before 1956 ) in the district part Atzgersdorf near the factory founded by Auer (later Osram Works, now part of the condominium Alterlaa ), the Auer- Welsbach - lane road today. ( A 1930 named Auer- Welsbach in Vienna Simmering, 11th district, in the Neugebäudestraße, ie since 1970 Mazellegasse. )
• Since 1951 there are in Berlin- Friedrichshain Straße.
• 2010, the Great Auditorium I of the Chemical Institute of the University of Vienna in Carl Auer von Welsbach auditorium was renamed.

Works (selection)

• About the rare earths. In: Monatshefte fur Chemie. An international journal of chemistry. ISSN 1434-4475, Volume 5, 1884 (January), pp. 508-522.
• About incandescent gaslight. Paper presented at the Lower Austrian Commercial clubs. Publisher of the Lower Austrian Commercial Association, Vienna 1886 (From: Wochenschrift of the Lower Austrian Commercial Association 1886)
• The history of the invention of the Gasglühlichtes. Munich 1901 ( From: Schilling 's Journal for gas lighting and water supply 1901)
• The decomposition of the Didyms into its elements. In: Proceedings of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences class. Born 1903, Vol 112, Dept. 2, pp. 1037-1055
• Remarks on the application of Funkenspectren in homogeneity tests. In: Festschrift Adolf loved ones. Winter, Leipzig 1906
• About the chemical investigation of actinium -containing residues from radium production. Alfred Hölder, Vienna 1910 ( Communications of the Radium Commission of the Imperial Academy of Sciences No. 6, 1910)