Adolph Ferdinand Gehlen

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Adolph Ferdinand Gehlen, 1827

Adolph Ferdinand Gehlen (born September 5, 1775 in Bütow in Hinterpommern , † July 16, 1815 in Munich ) was a German chemist .

Life

Gehlen, the son of a pharmacist in his hometown, underwent thorough studies of the languages ​​taught at the local school before he trained as a pharmacist in Königsberg with the court pharmacist and university professor Karl Gottfried Hagen and then spent three years at the University of Königsberg, especially natural sciences and Studied medicine, where he also received his doctorate (Dr. med.). Then he worked in the pharmacy Zum Weißen Schwan with Valentin Rose the Elder. J. in Berlin . There he was in contact with Martin Heinrich Klaproth and was his pupil. From 1803 to 1805 he was editor of the New General Journal of Chemistry (6 volumes), which followed the General Journal of Chemistry by Alexander Nicolaus Scherer , which existed from 1798 to 1803. From 1806 to 1810 he published the Journal for Physics and Chemistry (9 volumes) as its successor and with a program expanded to include physics . His successor as editor from 1811 was Johann Salomo Christoph Schweigger . In 1806 Gehlen went to Halle (Saale) , where he received his habilitation in chemistry at the university and worked as a private lecturer and as a zoochemist in the institute of Johann Christian Reil . In 1807 he went to Munich to take up a position as an academic chemist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . Among other things, he was responsible for the Bavarian mining industry, iron and steel works, and glass and porcelain factories; Among other things, he developed colors for the royal porcelain manufacturer Nymphenburg . In 1807 he became a full member of the academy.

As there was no suitable room, the laboratory work had to take place in Gehlen's private apartment. Under such conditions, experimenting with toxic substances such as hydrogen cyanide and arsenic compounds was hardly conducive to his already unstable health. In experiments with arsine , which were to be completed before a vacation that had already been approved for a spa cure, Gehlen suffered acute poisoning, to which he succumbed on July 15, 1815, after nine days of suffering, barely 40 years old.

He was one of the first to recognize that formic acid was not a mixture of other acids ( Antoine François de Fourcroy and Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin had thought it was a mixture of acetic acid and malic acid ) and he was one of the first to recognize the toxicity of hydrogen cyanide. In his day he was also known for a brief, easily understandable guide to the production of saltpetre . He was very linguistically gifted (he spoke eight living languages), carried out correspondence with leading European scholars and translated the Eléments de l'art de teinture by Claude-Louis Berthollet (as the beginnings of the art of dyeing , 2 volumes, Berlin 1806) and carried out the experiment Application of the electrical-chemical theory and the chemical theory of relationships to establish a purely scientific system of mineralogy (Nuremberg 1815) by Jöns Jakob Berzelius . In 1815 the first volume of his repetition for pharmacy appeared in Nuremberg , which the pharmacist Johann Andreas Buchner continued. Together with Buchner and Alois Hofmann, he founded the Pharmaceutische Verein in Bavaria, which, in addition to the library and herbarium, also pursued social goals (insurance against accidents, support for old or frail assistants). He was in demand as a consultant, not only among pharmacists and for the state, but also in the dye industry (indigo, woad), hop processing, sugar production and distillation of spirits.

Publications

  • Comprehensive instructions for the production and extraction of saltpetre , Nuremberg 1812 (2nd edition: 1814).
  • Remarks on the peculiarity of formic acid , memoranda of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Munich for the years 1811 and 1812, Volume 3, Department 1, pp. 243-272, Munich 1812.
  • Instructions for the construction of the woad plant, and for the preparation of the vat woad and indig from the leaves of the same , Munich 1814
  • Editor: Collection of discoveries and experiences in the field of chemistry, physics and mineralogy from the years 1806 to 1809 , 1817.
  • Contributions to the scientific foundation of the art of glassmaking. First treatise. About the use of Glauber's salt and table salt for glass , memoranda of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Munich for the years 1809 and. 1810, Munich 1811, Volume II, Department 2, pp. 149-196.
  • with Johann Andreas Buchner: Repetitorium der Pharmazie , Nuremberg, several booklets, 1815, 1816

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Monument on the grave. Biographical information on page 4 for date of birth and page 13 for date of death. (google books)
  2. ↑ In the 1804 edition, Sigismund Friedrich Hermbstädt , Johann Bartholomäus Trommsdorff , Martin Heinrich Klaproth , Alexander Nicolaus Scherer and JB Richter are also listed as editors
personal data
SURNAME Gehlen, Adolph Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1775
PLACE OF BIRTH Butow
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1815
Place of death Munich