History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2): From 1850 to 1910 — John Shaqi
History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2): From 1850 to 1910Thorpe, T. E. (Thomas Edward)
History
History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2): From 1850 to 1910
Thorpe, T. E. (Thomas Edward)
Chemistry -- History
in fact, imported something of the spirit and power of his master,
Liebig.
Among the pupils and co-workers of Hofmann were Warren de la Rue, Abel,
Nicholson, Mansfield, Medlock, Crookes, Church, Griess, Martius, Sell,
Divers, and Perkin. Whilst at Giessen he had begun the study of the
organic bases in coal-tar with a view more especially of establishing
the identity of Fritzsche’s _anilin_ with the _benzidam_ of Zinin and
the _krystallin_ of Unverdorben. Hofmann continued to cultivate with
unremitting zeal the field thus entered. With Muspratt he discovered
_paratoluidine_ and _nitraniline_; with Cahours _allyl alcohol_. His
pupil Mansfield worked out, at the cost of his life, the methods
for the technical extraction of benzene and toluene from coal-tar,
and thereby made the coal-tar colour-industry possible. It was in
attempting to synthesise quinine by the oxidation of aniline that
Perkin, then an assistant at the college, obtained, in 1856, _aniline
purple_, or _mauve_, as it came to be called by the French, the first
of the so-called coal-tar colouring matters. In 1859 this was followed
by the discovery of _magenta_, or _fuchsine_, by Verquin. For its
manufacture Medlock, one of Hofmann’s pupils, in 1860 devised a process
by which for a time it was almost exclusively made. Hofmann studied the
products thus obtained, and showed that they were derivatives of a base
he called _rosaniline_; and he demonstrated that the colouring matters
were only produced through the concurrent presence of aniline and
toluidine. He also proved that the base of the dye, known as _aniline
blue_, was _triphenylrosaniline_. As the result of these inquiries he
obtained the violet or purple colouring matters known by his name.
Lastly, all his classical work on the amines, ammonium compounds, and
the analogous phosphorus derivatives was done at the Royal College of
Chemistry.
Prior to the establishment by Liebig, in 1826, of the Giessen
laboratory, the state of chemistry in Germany was not much, if at all,
better than with us. The creation of the Giessen school initiated a
movement which has culminated in the pre-eminent position which Germany
now occupies in the chemical world. Students from every civilised
country came to study and to work under its leader, and to carry away
with them the influence of his example, the inspiration of his genius,
and the stimulating power of his enthusiasm.
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