Ernst Beckmann (chemist)

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Beckmann in 1913 in the new Berlin laboratory at the KWI for Chemistry
Ernst Beckmann

Ernst Otto Beckmann (born July 4, 1853 in Solingen , † July 12, 1923 in Berlin ) was a German chemist .

Life

The son of the factory owner Friedrich Wilhelm Beckmann and Julie Keusendorf had attended the grammar school in his hometown and the royal grammar school in Leipzig. After graduating from high school, he trained as a pharmacy assistant and worked for Remigius Fresenius in Elberfeld, Arolsen, Leipzig, Cologne and Wiesbaden . In 1875 he began studying pharmacy and chemistry at the University of Leipzig . After he had completed the 1,876 pharmaceutical state examination, he was in 1878 by Hermann Kolbe with a thesis "On the oxidation of dialkyl and related compounds" doctorate . In 1879 he became an assistant in Robert Otto's laboratory at the Technical University of Braunschweig and completed his habilitation in chemistry and pharmacy in 1882.

In 1884 he returned to Hermann Kolbe as a private lecturer in Leipzig, where he himself received an extraordinary professorship for physical chemistry in 1890. In 1890 Beckmann was accepted into the Leopoldina and the Saxon Academy of Sciences . In 1891 he moved to the University of Gießen in the same position , in 1892 he became a full professor at the University of Erlangen and director of the state research institute for food and beverages. In 1897 he returned to Leipzig as a full professor and director of the laboratory for applied chemistry. After several offers from various specialist institutes, he finally went in 1912 as the first director of the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem, where Richard Willstätter , Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn were his research assistants. Since 1912 he was also a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .

His daughter Erna and sons Karl and Helmert are known from his marriage on March 20, 1887 with Bertha, the daughter of the slate quarry owner and secret councilor Karl Oertel and his wife Emilie Dürr.

Act

obituary
GDCh memorial plaque for Ernst Beckmann and Wilhelm Ostwald at the old chemical institute of Leipzig University

Beckmann's special subjects were food chemistry, the chemistry of essential oils, studies of the isometric ratios of oximido compounds (oximes) and studies on the training of physico-chemical working methods. His name is still present in chemistry and chemical literature to this day with the Beckmann rearrangement , the intramolecular rearrangement of ketoximes into substituted amides , the Beckmann thermometer , the Beckmann freezer and boiling apparatus . The Beckmann rearrangement is still used today in the chemical industry for the production of ε- caprolactam from cyclohexanone oxime in the course of the production of Perlon . His literary work includes many articles in specialist journals of his time as well as some books.

In 2009, the GDCh recognized his work as part of the Historical Sites of Chemistry program in a memorial plaque at the Old Chemical Institute in Leipzig.

Fonts (selection)

  • About the oxidation products of dialkyl sulfides and similar compounds. 1878
  • About the method of determining molecular weight by lowering the freezing point , 1888
  • The newly established laboratory for applied chemistry at the University of Leipzig. 1899, 2009
  • New devices for coloring non-luminous flames (spectral lamps). 1901
  • Johannes Wislicenus . In: Reports of the German Chemical Society. Volume 37, 1905, pp. 4861-4946.
  • Studies on the ebullioscopic determination of molecular weights. 1907
  • Studies on sulfur, selenium and tellurium. 1913
  • Chemical determinations of the nutritional value of wood and straw: after joint experiments with W. Lenz and E. Bark. 1914
  • Procedure for testing the air for the content of flammable substances: after joint experiments with Kurt Steglich. 1914
  • Process for the production of a feed from straw: patented in the German Empire on February 2, 1919; Reichspatentamt patent specification No. 354822, class 53g, group 4 (B88 353 IV / 53g). 1919
  • Device for the transmission of secret light signals. 1920
  • Physico-chemical characterization of lignin from winter rye straw. 1921
  • Extension of Ebullioscopy and its application to binary mixtures: theoretical part. 1921
  • The refinement of cereal straw and lupins into high-quality animal feed. 1921
  • On Hofmann's degradation of acid amides into amines. 1922

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Journal for Practical Chemistry 17 , 439 (1878)
  2. ^ Members of the previous academies. Ernst Otto Beckmann. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on February 19, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Louis Fieser, Mary Fieser: Organic chemistry. 2nd Edition. Verlag Chemie Weinheim, 1972, ISBN 3-527-25075-1 , pp. 518-520.
  4. ↑ Ernst Beckmann: About the method of determining molecular weight by lowering the freezing point . In: Journal of physical chemistry . Stoichiometry and kinship theory. tape 2 . Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1888, p. 638-645 and 715-743 .
  5. ↑ Ernst Beckmann and Paul Knipping : Device for transmitting secret light signals . Presented on May 8, 1919. In: Prussian Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): Meeting reports of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . 1920, XXIV, p. 443-447 ( online at the Internet Archive [accessed February 20, 2016]). Patent pending on January 23, 1915, DRP 306468, Austrian patent 87751 from September 15, 1921.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Beckmann, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beckmann, Ernst Otto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Solingen
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1923
Place of death Berlin