Emil Heuser (chemist, 1882)

Emil Friedrich Franz Heuser (born September 15, 1882 in Stralsund , † December 24, 1953 in La Jolla , California ) was a German chemist and university lecturer for cellulose chemistry.

Life

Heuser was born in Stralsund in 1882 as the son of the consul and general director of the Stralsund playing card factory, Karl Heuser, and his wife Olga Cohn-Oborn. Heuser attended the secondary school in his hometown and after graduating from the school did an internship at the Potschappel machine factory near Dresden . From 1903 to 1908 he studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich , Technical University of Karlsruhe and at the University of Graz . At the TH Karlsruhe he studied in particular with Roland Scholl , who became professor in Graz in 1907. Heuser followed him and started his doctoral thesis there. In 1909 he received his doctorate with a thesis on oxalmalonic acid esters at the TH Karlsruhe. During his studies in Karlsruhe and Graz, Heuser discovered his interest in pulp and paper, which essentially determined his future life.

After completing his doctorate, Heuser went to the Laiblin company in Pfullingen . This was followed by a station in the sulphate pulp factory in Altdamm in Pomerania. Further positions followed in the Zehlendorf paper mill near Berlin and finally in the Steyrermühle pulp and paper mill in Austria.

In June 1912 he took up a professorship for cellulose chemistry at the TH Darmstadt . He thus succeeded Carl Gustav Schwalbe (1871-1938), who had founded the subject at the TH Darmstadt in 1908 and who had moved to Eberswalde in the spring of 1912. Linked to this was the position of director of the Institute for Cellulose Chemistry for Heuser.

Heuser achieved world fame in the field of cellulose chemistry in just a few years thanks to his numerous works and patents. During the First World War he was u. a. build a wood saccharification plant based on the Classen method in Mohnheim am Rhein.

For a long time the cramped spatial conditions of the institute, which was housed in the chemistry building of the TH Darmstadt in the Hochschulstraße, were a major difficulty for the development of the subject. This situation was only to improve when a four-story building previously used by the military was made available to the TH after the First World War. With donations from the paper and pulp industry and with financial support from the People's State of Hesse , an extensive test facility as well as study and course rooms were installed in the former military chamber building, which was located south of the extension to Georg Wickop 's main building . The construction work was directed by Otto Berndt .

From 1918 to 1926 Heuser was secretary of the Association of Pulp and Paper Chemists and Engineers.

In 1923 Heuser switched to industry with his assistant Georg Jayme and became head of the research laboratory of the United Glanzstoff-Fabriken AG Elberfeld in Seehof near Teltow near Berlin. In the fall of 1926 Heuser then took over the management of the research laboratory of the Canadian International Paper Company in Hawksbury, Ontario in Canada. He held this position with great success until 1938. In March 1938 Heuser left this position and became professor at the Institute for Paper Chemistry in Appleton (Wisconsin) , USA.

In the fall of 1947, he retired at the age of 65. In recognition of his services, he was given the honorary title “group leader in cellulosechemistry emeritus”. Even in his retirement, Heuser took part in various international conferences and congresses on issues relating to paper and cellulose chemistry.

Emil Heuser died on Christmas Eve 1953 at the age of 71. He was married to Frieda Thiele, the daughter of the painter Julius Arthur Thiele (1841-1919) , since 1910 . Four sons were born from this marriage.

Honors

• 1926: Honorary member of the Association of Pulp and Paper Chemists and Engineers.
• 1948: TAPPI medal
• 1952: Alexander Mitscherlich commemorative coin.

Publications

Emil Heuser has around 200 publications and numerous patents on various issues and processes in paper and cellulose chemistry. He also emerged as the founder of magazines and long-time editor of the magazine Cellulosechemie.

• 1909: On oxalmalonic acid esters , dissertation. Karlsruhe.
• 1913: The dyeing of paper on the paper machine , Berlin.
• 1921: Textbook of cellulose chemistry , Berlin.
• 1944: The Chemistry of Cellulose , New York.

literature

• Georg Jayme :  Heuser, Emil. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 46 ( digitized version ).
• Georg Jayme: Emil Heuser on his 70th birthday , in: Das Papier, 6th year 1952, pp. 348–355.
• One hundred years of Darmstadt University of Technology . The Technical University of Darmstadt 1836–1936, Darmstadt 1936.
• Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt , Darmstadt 1977, p. 83.