Alexander Bauer (chemist)

Alexander Bauer around 1890

Alexander Emil Anton Bauer (born February 16, 1836 in Altenburg (Hungarian Magyaróvár ), † April 12, 1921 in Vienna ) was an Austrian chemist .

Life

Alexander Bauer attended secondary school with Gustav Adolf Kenngott and Josef Greilich in Pressburg . From 1853 to 1856 he studied mathematics and natural sciences at the Vienna kk Polytechnikum together with Adolf Lieben . At the same time he worked at the laboratory of the Schottenfelder Realschule , where he met Francesco Filippuzzi . In 1856 he became assistant for chemistry with Anton Schrötter von Kristelli and in 1858 assistant teacher at the Vienna Commercial Academy . The following year he was researching with Charles Adolphe Wurtz at the École de médecine de Paris. After completing his doctorate in Giessen, Bauer became a "supplent" at the Vienna Commercial Academy and in 1860 a volunteer at a sugar factory in Moravia.

In 1861 he became professor of chemistry at the commercial academy in Vienna and private lecturer at the polytechnic. From 1868 he was a lecturer at the Vienna School of Applied Arts and in 1869 an associate professor of chemical technology, in 1875 of general chemistry. In 1871/77 he developed the synthesis of pimelic acid together with Josef Schuler (1883–1963) . In 1876 he became an associate professor for general chemistry at the Imperial and Royal Technical University and inspector of industrial education. One of his important students was Carl Auer von Welsbach . From 1884 he was rector of the Imperial and Royal Technical University in Vienna. In 1890 he was appointed councilor. In 1892 he was accepted into the Leopoldina . In 1904 he retired . In 1916 he received an honorary doctorate from the Vienna University of Technology .

He also worked on the manufacture of amylene oxide and made numerous contributions to the history of chemistry and the chemistry of paints. When he was a member of the Vienna City Council from 1871 to 1873, he made a significant contribution to improving the sewer system . From 1882 he was a correspondent of the Imperial and Royal Central Commission and from 1888 a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna .

Bauer's first marriage was to the Englishwoman Emily Russel. After the death of his first wife, Bauer married the musician Natalie Bauer-Lechner (1858–1921), a childhood friend of Gustav Mahler's on December 27, 1875 . This marriage was divorced on June 19, 1885 by mutual agreement. From his first marriage he had three daughters: Rhoda (1864-?), Married to Hans Arzberger, Georgina (1867-1921), who married the botanist Rudolf Schrödinger (1857-1919) (Bauer's grandson Erwin Schrödinger emerged from the latter marriage ) , and Minie (Emély; 1874-?), who married chemistry professor Max Bamberger (1861–1927).

Fonts

• Chemistry and alchemy in Austria up to the beginning of the XIX century: a sketch . - Vienna: Lechner, 1883. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
• Chemistry and alchemy in Austria . 1885
• The first attempts to introduce gas lighting in Austria . 1891
• The nobility documents of Austrian alchemists and the images of some medals of alchemical origin: with 2 zincotypes u. 5 Lichtdrucktaf . - Vienna: Hölder, 1893. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
• On the question of the preservation of public monuments in the communications of the kk Central Commission , Volume 9

literature

• Kurt Haidinger:  Bauer, Alexander Emil Anton. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 636 ( digitized version ).
• Farmer Alexander. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1957, p. 54.

Web links

• Entry on Alexander Bauer in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )

Individual evidence

1. ^ The scientific world of Carl Auer von Welsbach (PDF file; 118 kB) accessed on June 9, 2009.
2. ↑ Academic dignitaries of the Vienna University of Technology ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved February 3, 2016. 
3. ↑ Person encyclopedia of the Federal Monuments Office.
4. ↑ Herbert Killian (ed.), Knud Martner (note): Gustav Mahler in the memories of Natalie Bauer-Lechner. Wagner, Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-921029-92-9 , p. 15 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
5. ^ Karl von Meyenn (ed.): A discovery of very extraordinary scope. Schrödinger's correspondence on wave mechanics and the cat paradox. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-642-04334-5 , p. 2 ( limited preview in the Google book search).