Bernhard Moebius
Bernhard Moebius (born November 28, 1851 in Hartha , Saxony; † May 13, 1898 on the steamer Wilhelm der Große during the crossing from the USA to Germany) was a German-American metallurgist .
Life
The son of the master saddler Friedrich Ehregott Moebius (* 1825) and Johanna Christiane, w. Teichert (* 1815), studied chemistry and metallurgy, including at the Freiberg Mining Academy .
He worked at various iron and steel works in Germany, Austria, Spain and in Mexico at the lead smelter Pinos Altos , where he developed his Moebius electrolysis for the electrolytic separation of silver-gold alloys. In the winter of 1884/1885 he received patents for this in Germany, Great Britain and the USA. The previous affinage was thereby displaced.
In 1898 the amperes were defined in the Reichsgesetzblatt and in 1908 the international amperes were defined as the unchangeable current that deposits 1.118 mg of silver per second in an aqueous solution of silver nitrate .
He emigrated from Mexico to the USA, where he acquired citizenship shortly afterwards. He lived in New York, was highly regarded and was a member of numerous scientific and technical societies. He was buried in his hometown of Hartha.
Moebius electrolysis
With the Moebius electrolysis it is possible to refine the Güldi silver that occurs during the smelting of lead ore containing silver . The anode made of approx. 10 kg Güldisch silver is located in an electrolysis cell filled with an aqueous silver nitrate solution. Stainless steel sheets are used as the cathode. At a current density on the electrodes of 400 A / m 2 , the silver dissolves at the anode and is transported as an ion to the cathode participate without gold and platinum on the electroplating process. Gold and platinum remain undissolved on the anode and eventually accumulate as anode sludge , which is collected in a bag surrounding the anode and finally separated into pure metals. The purity of the cathodically deposited silver is (with a gold content of <0.0005%) 99.99% Ag. The energy consumption is low at 1 kWh / kg silver.
literature
- Günter Cornelius: Moebius, Bernhard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 605 f. ( Digitized version ).
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Moebius, Bernhard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German metallurgist and inventor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 28, 1851 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hartha |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 13, 1898 |
| Place of death | Kaiser Wilhelm the Great (ship) |