Eduard Simon (pharmacist)

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Johann Eduard Simon (born September 18, 1789 in Berlin ; † June 19, 1856 ibid) was a German pharmacist and chemist .

Life

Simon graduated from Valentin Rose d. J. an apprenticeship as a pharmacist . Then in 1814 he took over the pharmacy Zum Goldenen Bär in Spandauer Strasse 33 in Old Berlin from Wilhelm Friedrich. The famous pharmacist-chemists Andreas Sigismund Marggraf and Martin Heinrich Klaproth had already worked in this pharmacy in the previous century . From 1851 the pharmacy was continued by Johann Eduard Simon's son Carl Eduard Simon.

Before the advent of the pharmaceutical industry, pharmacists had to manufacture their ointments, pastes, powders and tinctures largely from natural products themselves. Among other things, Simon had acquired Styrax in 1835 , the resin of the oriental sweetgum tree ( Liquidambar orientalis ). Over the course of four years, in 1839, he discovered that after distillation , the natural product became a clear liquid, which he called styrene . When heated, this liquid did not evaporate, but took on a gelatinous consistency. With the knowledge of his time, Simon suspected that an oxidation had taken place and called the result "styrene oxide" ( styrene oxide ).

In 1845, John Blyth and August Wilhelm von Hofmann recognized that styrene was not oxidized, but that a new material had been created with the same chemical composition as styrene, which is why they renamed styrene oxide metastyrene . They were also able to show that metastyrene can be converted back into styrene. After another twenty years, Marcelin Berthelot found out in 1866 that the formation of metastyrene from styrene was a polymerization . Further research made it clear that the heating of the styrene triggers a chain reaction and macromolecules form. The product has been known as polystyrene since the 20th century .

literature

  • Georg Schwedt: Plastic, elastic and fantastic: it doesn't work without plastics. , Verlag Wiley-Vch 2013, ISBN 978-3-527-66532-7 .

Web links

  • John Scheirs, Duane Priddy: Modern Styrenic Polymers: Polystyrenes and Styrenic Copolymers , Verlag Wiley 2003, ISBN 978-0-471-49752-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Klassik: Person database (accessed December 2, 2014)
  2. ↑ Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und schehrtenachen No. 91, July 30, 1814, p. 12 (accessed June 22, 2017)
  3. ^ Hermann Gelder: On the history of the privileged pharmacies in Berlin . Julius Springer, Berlin 1925, p. 22-23 .
  4. ↑ E. Simon: About the liquid Storax (Styrax liquidus) . In: Annals of Pharmacy . tape 31 , no. 3 , 1839, pp. 265-277 , doi : 10.1002 / jlac.18390310306 .
  5. ^ Adolf Echte, Franz Haaf, Jürgen Hambrecht: Five decades of polystyrene - an overview of the chemistry and physics of a pioneering substance . In: Angewandte Chemie . tape 93 , no. 4 , April 1981, pp. 372-388 , doi : 10.1002 / anie.19810930408 .
  6. ↑ John Blyth, Aug. Wilh. Hofmann: About styrene and some of its decomposition products . In: Justus Liebig's Annals of Chemistry . tape 53 , no. 3 , 1845, p. 289-329 , doi : 10.1002 / jlac.18450530302 .
  7. ↑ ChemgaPedia: Styrene (accessed December 2, 2014)
personal data
SURNAME Simon, Eduard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simon, Johann Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacist and chemist
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1856
Place of death Berlin