The progress of scientific chemistry in our own times : with biographical notices / by William A. Tilden.

  • William A. Tilden
Date:
1913
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The progress of scientific chemistry in our own times : with biographical notices / by William A. Tilden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    42/390 page 26
    [Dictionary of National Biography. History of Chemistry. Thos. Thomson. Vol. ii., 1831.] Louis Jacques Thenard (Baron Thenard) was born on 4th May 1777, at Nogent-sur-Seine, in Champagne. The son of a poor farmer who, however, contrived to give him a liberal education, he was sent to Paris at the age of sixteen to study pharmacy. Here he studied under Vauquelin at the College de France, and afterwards obtained an appointment at the Ecole Polytechnique, where in a few years he became Professor. He was associated with Gay-Lussac in many chemical re¬ searches. His most important discovery was peroxide of hydrogen. His name is associated with a blue colour con¬ taining cobalt. Thenard, after the Revolution of 1830, was called to the House of Peers with the title of Baron. He died 21st June 1857. [Obituary, Quart. Journ. of the Chem. Soc., vol. ii. p. 182 (1859).] Friedrich Wohler, born 31st July 1800. He entered the University of Marburg, but afterwards removed to Heidelberg, where he worked under the direction of Gmelin. After taking his degree in medicine he proceeded to Stockholm with the object of working in Berzelius’ laboratory. His earliest investigations were occupied with cyanic acid, and in 1828, not long after his return to Germany, he announced his discovery of the artificial production of urea. In 1825 he was appointed to teach chemistry in the New Trade School in Berlin. In 1827 he isolatod aluminium. About this time he became acquainted with Liebig and conducted many researches jointly with him, notably the study of essential oil of almonds referred to in the text.1 In 1831 Wohler was transferred to the Trade School at Cassel, and in 1835 he succeeded Stromeyer as Professor of Chemistry in the University of Gottingen. Here, after a research on uric acid carried on in association with Liebig, he turned chiefly to inorganic chemistry, in which de- 1 Their letters have been collected into two volumes by Emilie Wohler and A W. Hofmann. Brunswick, 1888.
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