Friedrich August Genth

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Friedrich August Genth

Friedrich August Ludwig Karl Wilhelm Genth (born May 16, 1820 in Wächtersbach , † February 2, 1893 in Philadelphia ) was a German-American chemist and mineralogist.

Life and career

Friedrich August Genth was born in Wächtersbach as the son of the Isenburg forester Georg Friedrich Genth and his wife Caroline Amalie Genth, née von Schwarzenau. That's where he grew up. From 1830 he attended the local Latin school. Genth graduated from high school in Hanau . His father recognized his son's talent for the natural sciences early on "... with exact observations and descriptions ..."

He first studied philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. His first descriptions of the geology of the Mainz Basin originate from this time and later played an important role in the reconstruction of the geological course and development of the region. In August 1841 Genth moved to the University of Giessen . The chemists Justus von Liebig and Carl Remigius Fresenius worked there during this time, and they certainly influenced his further life. Genth moved from Gießen to Marburg , where he became a student of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen . In January 1845 he received his doctorate. phil. with a dissertation on copper shale ores. He first became an assistant at Bunsen and then, after his habilitation on September 5, 1846, private lecturer at the University of Marburg. In the summer of the revolutionary year of 1848, Genth emigrated to the USA with his partner Caroline Jäger, the daughter of the Marburg library director Wilhelm Jäger. The political uncertainty at the time may have been one of the reasons for this step. On October 2, 1852 he married Minna Pauline Fischer († August 31, 1878 in Philadelphia). The marriage resulted in 9 children, 6 of whom reached adulthood. Genth died in Philadelphia (USA) in 1893.

Act

In Philadelphia, Genth soon founded one of the first chemical analytical laboratories. After that he was briefly superintendent of a silver mine in North Carolina . In 1850 he returned to Philadelphia and reopened his laboratory. In addition to carrying out commercial chemical analyzes, Genth further developed the chemical analysis of mineralogy, which was still in its infancy. In addition, he trained private students. During this time he discovered a binuclear ammine complex, which he succeeded in working with the American chemist and enthusiastic mineralogist Oliver Wolcott Gibbs .

In 1872 he became professor of chemistry and mineralogy at the University of Pennsylvania , two years later geologist at the Geological Survey, and in 1877 chemist on the Board of Agriculture . In 1880 he became president of the American Chemical Society . In the spring of 1888 he resumed classes at the private laboratory.

Genth developed a great passion for minerals and collected or acquired nearly 12,000 mineral and 70 meteorite pieces over the course of his life . Its collection forms an integral part of the University of Pennsylvania's geological collection. He discovered and described 23 new minerals, including calaverite (1868), cosalite (1868), schirmerite (1874, discredited 2008), coloradoite (1877), phosphuranylite (1879), lansfordite (1888), nesquehonite (together with Penfield 1890) and Aguilarit (1891).

Honors

  • 1872 Friedrich August Genth was in the National Academy of Sciences elected
  • Two newly discovered minerals were named after him, the Genthit (1840, renamed Antigorite with recognition by the CNMNC ) and the Genthelvin (1944).
  • The cooperative comprehensive school in his hometown Wächtersbach has been named after him (since June 17, 1997)

literature

  • Gerhard Jahn / Bruno Brill, "Friedrich August Genth", collection. History of Wächtersbach, No. 134
  • WM Myers / S. Zerfoss, Frederick Augustus Genth, Chemist-Mineralogist-Collector, Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol. 241, No. 5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich August Genth 1820-1893 Chemist-Mineralogist-Collector ( Memento from July 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ A b Friedrich-August-Genth-Schule in Wächtersbach: Our namesake
  3. ↑ a b c A great personality from Wächtersbach - Friedrich August Genth would have been 200 years old today , GNZ May 16, 2020
  4. ^ Friedrich August Genth
  5. ^ Friedrich August Genth: Contributions to mineralogy - e. Calaverite, a new mineral. In: American Journal of Science. 1868, 45, pp. 314-316 ( full text ).
  6. ↑ IMA / CNMNC List of Mineral Names 2009 (PDF 1.8 MB)
  7. ^ Friedrich August Genth: Contributions to mineralogy - 1. Aguilarite, a new species. In: American Journal of Science. 1891, pp. 402-402 ( full text ).
  8. ↑ Mineral Atlas: Genthite
  9. ↑ Mindat - Genthelvite (English)
personal data
SURNAME Genth, Friedrich August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Genth, Friedrich August Ludwig Karl Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American chemist and mineralogist
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Waechtersbach
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1893
Place of death Philadelphia