Augustus Matthiessen

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Augustus Matthiessen (born January 2, 1831 in London , † October 6, 1870 ibid) was a British chemist and physicist .

Life

Matthiessen studied chemistry at the Universities of Giessen and Heidelberg , then did his doctorate in London. During his time in Germany he was a. a. Student of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff . In 1855 his first publication appeared in the Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie ; she reported in particular on the electrolytic synthesis of calcium and strontium . In 1859 Matthiessen returned to London and worked there at the Royal College of Chemistry .

Together with Moritz von Bose he published in the Annalen der Physik in 1861 the work on the influence of temperature on the electrical conductivity of metals and later a work on the properties of gold-tin, lead-zinc and bismuth-zinc alloys as well as of metallic cadmium. From 1862 he was professor of chemistry at St. Marys Hospital , where he continued his research with the support of Carl Friedrich Gustav Vogt . In 1869 he took over the professorship in chemistry at St Bartholomew's Hospital .

In 1869 he was awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society .

In 1870 Matthiessen killed himself by poisoning, according to his suicide note, in order to evade an unjust charge.

Services

  • In 1854 and 1855, he and his teacher Bunsen produced the metals lithium , strontium and barium in large quantities for the first time by electrolysing the chlorine salts .
  • Under Kirchhoff's guidance, Matthiessen published several groundbreaking articles on the conductivity of metals from 1857 to 1858 ; in London in 1861 he investigated their temperature dependence ( Matthiessensche rule ).
  • In the years from 1862 he researched various metals and metal alloys as well as their conductivity.
  • Matthiessen discovered that almost all alloys made from two metals can be viewed as solidified solutions of one in the other metal.
  • In 1868 he produced a variety of narcotine derivatives .
  • In 1869, Matthiessen discovered the close relationship between codeine and morphine .

Fonts

  • with Carl Vogt: On the Influence of Temperature on the Electric Conducting-Power of Thallium and Iron. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London , Volume 153, 1863, pp. 369-383
  • with Carl Vogt: On the Influence of Temperature on the Electric Conducting-Power of Alloys. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London , Volume 154, 1865, pp. 167-200 (digitized version )

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Dr. Augustus Matthiessen: Electrolytic representation of the metals of the alkalis and earths . In: Friedrich Wöhler, Justus Liebig, Hermann Kopp (Hrsg.): Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie . tape 93 , no. 3 . CF Winter, Heidelberg and Leipzig 1855, p. 277–286 , doi : 10.1002 / jlac.18550930302 ( online in the HathiTrust Digital Library - the work is dated December 16, 1854).
  2. ↑ Yearbook of Inventions and Advances in the Fields of Physics, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Astronomy and Meteorology , Volume 7 (1871), p. 385
  3. ↑ Robert Bunsen: Representation of the lithium . In: Friedrich Wöhler, Justus Liebig, Hermann Kopp (Hrsg.): Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie . tape 94 , no. 1 . CF Winter, Leipzig and Heidelberg 1855, p. 107–111 , doi : 10.1002 / jlac.18550940112 ( online in Bunsen's collected publications in the Internet Archive, online in the HathiTrust Digital Library - the work is dated March 1, 1855).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Matthiessen, Augustus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Matthiesen, Augustus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British chemist and physicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1870
Place of death London