Wilhelm Normann
Wilhelm Normann (born January 16, 1870 in Petershagen , † May 1, 1939 in Chemnitz ) was a chemist, biologist, geologist and entrepreneur in Herford . He is the inventor of fat hardening and one of the pioneers of large-scale industrial margarine production .
Life
His parents were Julius Normann, principal of the elementary school and Selekta in Petershagen, and Luise Normann, née Siveke. From March 31, 1877 Normann attended pre-school and from Easter the sixth of the Friedrichs-Gymnasium in Herford . After his father got a teaching position at the municipal middle school in Bad Kreuznach in 1880 , Wilhelm switched to the royal high school there. At the age of 18 he left school with the primary school leaving certificate.
A few days after leaving school, on April 7, 1888, he joined the Herford machine fat and oil factory Leprince & Siveke , the company was founded by Wilhelm Siveke and his maternal uncle. After managing the Herford company in the Hamburg free port for two years, Normann began studying chemistry at the Prof. Fresenius laboratory in Wiesbaden . In the meantime he was a volunteer in the lignite industry in Zeitz for half a year . From April 1892 he continued his studies in the oil testing department of the Royal Mechanical and Technical Research Institute in Berlin-Charlottenburg under David Holde . From 1895 to 1900 he studied chemistry with Adolf Claus and Conrad Willgerodt and geology with Gustav Steinmann at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg im Breisgau . He received his doctorate there in 1900 with a thesis on contributions to the knowledge of the reaction between hypochlorous acid salts and primary aromatic amines .
plant
In 1901 Normann was appointed correspondent for the geological state institute. From 1901 to 1909 he headed the laboratory and continued his research on fats and oils at Leprince & Siveke in Herford.
Also in 1901, Normann learned that Paul Sabatier had published an article in which he claimed that it was only possible to catalytically attach the hydrogen to low-viscosity tar oils with vaporizable organic compounds . Then Normann did his own research and was able to refute Sabatier's views. He succeeded in converting liquid oleic acid into solid stearic acid by catalytic hydrogenation on finely divided nickel. This reaction was the forerunner of fat hardening, which Normann discovered on February 27, 1901.
On August 14, 1902, the German Reich Patent Office granted patent no. 141 029 to the Leprince & Siveke company : Process for converting unsaturated fatty acids or their glycerides into saturated compounds . On January 21, 1903, British Patent No. 1515: Process for Converting Unsaturated Fatty Acids or their Glycerides into Saturated Compounds was granted to Dr. Wilhelm Normann.
From 1905 to 1910 Normann built a system for hardening fat in the Herford company, at the same time the invention was made in Warrington , England at the company Joseph Crosfield & Sons Ltd. expanded to a large system. It only took two years for the first technical production of hard fat in Warrington.
From 1 January 1911 to 31 January 1922 was Norman scientific director of the Dutch Jürgens Group in Emmerich built Ölwerke Germania .
From 1917 Normann built the fat hardening plant and also commissioned it for the margarine factory SAPA Societe anonyme des grasses, huiles et produits africaines in Antwerp as a technical manager on behalf of the Belgian Colonial Society.
From 1924 to 1927, Normann was a consultant for fat hardening plants, also for foreign companies.
At the beginning of 1939, Normann retired. He couldn't enjoy his retirement for very long. Wilhelm Normann died on May 1, 1939 after a long illness in the Küchwald Hospital in Chemnitz. He was buried on May 5, 1939 in the family grave in the old cemetery in Herford .
Awards
- 1922 Liebig commemorative coin from the Association of German Chemists
- 1939 Application for an honorary doctorate in natural sciences (Dr. rer. Nat. Hc) by the natural sciences faculty and the Senate of the University of Münster in Westphalia
- 1939 Honorary membership of the German Society for Fat Research (today the German Society for Fat Science , DGF), Münster (former President: Hans Paul Kaufmann ).
In memory of the inventor of fat hardening, the DGF donated the Wilhelm Normann Medal in 1940 and awards it at irregular intervals.
Normann is also the namesake of the Wilhelm Normann Vocational College in Herford . In addition, Mount Normann bears his name, a mountain on the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic.
literature
- Klaus Ruthenberg: Normann, Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 344 ( digitized version ).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Normann, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 16, 1870 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Petershagen |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1, 1939 |
| Place of death | Chemnitz |