Anton Leopold von Rupprecht

Anton Leopold Rupprecht von Eggenburg (also: Anton von Ruprecht ; Hungarian Ruprecht Antal , born November 14, 1748 in Schmöllnitz ; † October 6, 1814 in Vienna ) was a Hungarian mining official, chemist and university professor at the Schemnitz Mining Academy .

Life

He studied between 1772 and 1775 as a scholarship holder at the Bergakademie in what is now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia . After graduating, he worked for the Oberst-Kammergrafenamt Schemnitz. From 1777 to 1779 he went on study trips, visited mines, smelters and universities in Saxony, Sweden and on the Rhine. He studied at Uppsala University with Professor Torben Olof Bergman , one of the most renowned analytical chemists of his time. On his return in 1779, he was appointed to succeed Scopoli as professor in the Department of Metallurgical Chemistry and Mineralogy of the Academy.

Between 1782 and 1785 he dealt with the study of the Transylvanian ores, where Ignaz von Born had improved the process of precious metal extraction. With Franz Joseph Müller von Reichenstein , he led a scientific debate about the newly discovered element tellurium , the metallicum problematicum, which was initially classified alternately as antimony or bismuth. Müller eventually identified it as tellurium, which was confirmed by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1798 . Ruprecht played an important role in refuting the so-called phlogiston theory ; his theory was quoted by Lavoisier . In this context he was the first in Austria and Hungary to use the notation of chemical processes in higher education.

After 1785 he began his attempts at chemical reduction. Ruprecht claimed that so-called " earths " were actually oxides of metals from which metals could be obtained by reduction. For his experiments he designed a special high-temperature furnace in his laboratory, in which he was able to melt platinum for the first time. The soil examined was mixed with coal powder and linseed oil and heated in a crucible . He found metal particles of the three types of earth (barium, calcium and magnesium oxide) on the ground and named the new metals (Borbonium, Parthenum, Autrium) . He published his reports and studies mainly in Crell’s Chemical Annals . The results met with a great response, but the skeptics predominated. Klaproth called the entire earth metallization "Schemnitzer heresy", only Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin and Ignaz von Born supported Ruprecht. Klaproth was initially right because it later became known that earth oxides could not be reduced with carbon. In 1808 the English chemist Humphry Davy proved that all three metals can be produced by fused-salt electrolysis of the three earth oxides.

In 1792 Rupprecht became court advisor for mining and coinage at the court chamber in Vienna and Reich commissioner for mining and metallurgy and retired in 1802. He died in 1814 and was honored by Davy's successful experiments.

Works

• Chemical annals
  • About a perfect and pure Schwerstein and Wasserbley king. In: Volume 1790, Part 1, p. 483.
  • About a new metal from the heavy earth, and the tungstone and molybdenum king. In: Born 1790, Part 2, p. 3.
  • Further news about the new metal from heavy earth. In: Volume 1790, Part 2, p. 91.
  • Experiments on the metallic nature of bitter, lime and silica earth etc. In: Jg. 1790, part 2, p. 195 u. 291.
  • About the Platinum King, and related items. In: Volume 1790, Part 2, p. 387.

• Physical work of the amicable friends in Vienna . Edited by Ignaz von Born .
  • Investigation of the reddish dike rock or so-called feldspar from Kapnik in Transylvania. In: Jg. 1, Qu. 1 (1783), p. 55.
  • Write ... About the reddish gold-bearing gangue rock, the Transylvanian dignified Spiesglasönig, and a new Nagyager gold ore. In: Jg. 1, Qu. 1 (1783), p. 59.
  • Writing ... About the supposed Transylvanian dignified Spiesglass King. In: Jg. 1, Qu. 1 (1783), p. 70.
  • About the Hungarian Pechstein. In: Jg. 1, Qu. 2 (1784), p. 54.
  • The breakdown and nature of the next constituent parts of a gold ore that has always broken in at Nagyag in Transylvania, but has now become indefinite. In: Jg. 1, Qu. 4 (1785), p. 51.
  • Experiments: On the dissolvability of gold in metallic form by the dephlogistic hydrochloric acid. In: Jg. 1, Qu. 4 (1785), p. 86.

literature

• Court and State Schematism of the Roman Emperors. also kaiserl. royal and archducal capital and residence city of Vienna. 1797, p. 24 ( scan in the Google book search).
• Court and State Schematism of the Austrian Empire. Vienna 1812, p. 210: K. K. Hofkammer in Münz- und Berg-Wesen, K. K. wirkl. Court councilor: Anton Ruprecht v. Eggenberg ( scan in Google book search).
• JG Meusel : Das schehre Teutschland, 5th edition, volume 10. Lemgo 1803, pp. 530-531, urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10732848-2 ( digital-sammlungen.de , MDZ ).
• New yearbooks of mining and metallurgy. Edited by Carl Erenbert von Moll. Volume 3 (1815), p. 434: Death report for 1814, October 6th ( scan in the Google book search).
• Ruprecht, Anton von. In: JC Poggendorff : Biographical-literary concise dictionary for the history of the exact sciences. Volume 2. Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig 1863, Sp. 723 ( Scan  - Internet Archive ).
• G. Faller: History of the royal mining and forest academy in Schemnitz. August Joerges, Schemnitz 1868, p. 7 ( scan in Google book search).
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Ruprecht, Anton von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 27th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1874, p. 274 f. ( Digitized version ).
• W. v. Gümbel :  Ruprecht, Anton v. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 29, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, p. 747 f.
• Helmut wing: Anton (Antal) Ruprecht von Eggenberg (1748–1814). In: Geological sheets. Volume 26, Berlin 2015, pp. 125–130.
• Marco Fontani, Mariagrazia Costa, Mary Virginia Orna: The Lost Elements: The Periodic Table's Shadow Side. Oxford University Press, New York, NY 2015, Ruprecht and Tondi: Two Metallurgists without metals, p. 32 ff. ( Scan in Google book search).

Web links

Wikisource: Anton von Ruprecht  - Sources and full texts

• RUPRECHT, Antal (Anton). In: cesa-project.eu