Caspar Neumann (chemist)
Caspar Neumann ( born July 11, 1683 Züllichau, Brandenburg, † October 20, 1737 in Berlin) was a German chemist and pharmacist. As a supporter of the phlogiston theory steel Neumann this helped in Berlin advantage. He advocated for a clear description of substances and constituents. Philosophical concepts such as phosphorus he refused.
Life and work
After Caspar Ludwig's father, the merchant Georg Ludwig, was in 1695 died, looked after him his godfather, the Züllichauer pharmacist Johann Romcke and introduced him to the ars pharmaceutica; at the same time he received from a preacher teaching in Polish. 1701, after completing his apprenticeship, Neumann went at the age of 18 years as provisor in the pharmacy according to Clock Town, which belonged to Poland.
In 1705 he moved to Berlin, where Neumann worked for a short time as a journeyman in the dispensary of the pharmacist Schmedicke and then moved to the Court Pharmacy. His technical knowledge, but also his musical talents paved the way for him to favor Frederick I of Prussia. Frederick Neumann get a scholarship, which used this to perfecting his chemical knowledge on educational travel. So he undertook from 1711 trips to the resin and in other parts of Germany to learn about mining and smelting works, coins, laboratories, glassworks, foundries and botanical gardens. His travels took him to Holland, where he was teaching Herman Boerhaave in Leiden pursued. About Utrecht and Amsterdam, he came to London, where he was in 1713 the news of the death of his royal patron and simultaneously reached by his dismissal ( " you need him no more ").
In London he found in the chemist Abraham Cyprian († 1718) a rich sponsor, was able to work undisturbed in his private laboratory Neumann. In 1716 he traveled in the wake of the English King George I to Germany and negotiated in Berlin with the physician Georg Ernst Stahl ( 1659-1734 ), who campaigned with King Friedrich Wilhelm I to his return to Berlin. Provided with ample funds returned Neumann back to London. After the death of Berliner Hof Pharmacist Memhard 1718, he had to handle his travel plans in a big hurry. About Paris, where he came into contact with the brothers Étienne François and Claude -Joseph Geoffroy, Neumann traveled via Lyon, Grenoble, Turin, Genoa and Florence to Rome. From there he was in 1719 Tyrol, Augsburg, Dresden and Leipzig to Berlin. Here the management of the Court Pharmacy has now been transferred to him, which he held until his death.
In this position, he utilized his acquired knowledge on the cruises to the complete reorganization of the court pharmacy in Berlin. Within a very short time he succeeded, through well thought out conversions and comprehensive upgrading the device to an exemplary pharmaceutical plant, but especially to develop the Berliner Hof pharmacy at a research and training center that had no counterpart in Germany. In the premises of the pharmacy, it was possible to give a first lesson in pharmaceutical chemistry. Among his many pupils was also the pharmacist and chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf ( 1709-1782 ).
1723 Neumann was appointed as the first pharmaceutical university lecturer and professor of practical chemistry at the Collegium Medico - chirurgicum. At the same time he received the chemist position in the Berlin Academy of Sciences. With the appointment in the Medical- Upper College as a pharmaceutical assessor in 1724, he lived for the practical test, the pharmacist and became the overseer of all pharmacies of the Prussian state. Neumann developed the concept of de facto pharmacists scientifically literate.
Even as scientists Neumann enjoyed among his contemporaries high reputation. New friends GE steel, he was a supporter of the phlogiston theory. He worked on thymol, amber, benzoin, cinnamic acid, among other things, examined tea, wine, coffee and beer, was the first to the acid character of succinic acid and took 40 years before Carl Wilhelm Scheele as a reaction product of mercury solutions and saline " sweetened sublimate " (mercury (I ) chloride or calomel as a mineral ). In 1727 he was med doctorate in Hall Dr. and appointed a member of the Leopoldina in the following year. The Royal Society of London elected him a member.
When connecting no particular individual performance chemical or pharmakognostischem areas with his name, as is Caspar Neumann's merit is to have the entire conception of pharmaceutical activity lifted scientifically. It was his power that allowed a time after him, in the increased academic interest and consequently of importance in the German pharmacy of the 18th century was reached.
Services
- Demand for " clear material descriptions " of all the constituents of a substance (substance analysis as Georg Ernst Stahl ). Neumann Related to characterize approximate melting points and density.
- Approaches to nomenclature (name ) of the salts.
- Work on thymol, rubbing alcohol, amber, benzoin and cinnamic acid.
- Experiments on phlogiston theory.
Works
- Praelectiones Chemicae, 1749-1755
- Chimia medica - dogmatico experimentalis