Germain Henri Hess
Germain Henri Hess , also Hermann Heinrich Hess, Russian Герман Иванович Гесс , Russian transcription German Iwanowich Hess (Gess), (* 7 August 1802 in Geneva ; † 30 November July / 12 December 1850 greg. In Saint Petersburg ) a Swiss-Russian chemist and mineralogist .
Life
Hermann Heinrich Hess was born on August 7, 1802 in Geneva as the son of a Swiss painter. At the age of three, Hess and his family moved to Russia near Moscow , where he lived on an estate. At the age of 15, Hess went to high school in Dorpat , Estonia. Two years later, in 1822, he graduated there with a passed school-leaving examination and in the same year began studying at the University of Dorpat . He received his PhD three years later.
Due to the great skills that Hess showed, he was allowed to work with one of the most famous chemists ( Jöns Jakob Berzelius ) at Stockholm University for a few months . After studying in Stockholm, Hess returned to Russia. In the city of Irkutsk (Siberia) he started working as a doctor with a focus on obstetrics and rare eye diseases. During this time, however, he remained true to his preferences for mineralogy and chemistry, undertook several research trips to the Urals and Lake Baikal, and examined and described the minerals , salt deposits and mineral waters found there.
In late 1828, Hess was elected as an assistant in chemistry at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences . Thereupon he gave up his medical practice in early 1829 and moved to St. Petersburg to take up his activity at the academy. During this time Hess brought out a two-volume textbook, which he titled " Basics of pure chemistry ". For years it was regarded as the Russian standard work on chemistry. Only four years later became a full member of the academy.
In 1832 he discovered chromium ores from the Urals, a new mineral of the garnet group , the Uwarowit .
In the 1830s, Hess became increasingly concerned with the amounts of heat that often occur in chemical reactions. He also examined a wide variety of organic substances, such as sugar. At the end of the thirties, however, he devoted himself entirely to the analysis of heat development in chemical reactions. Hess published his results from 1840 at the St. Petersburg University. In this work, Hess formulated what is now known as Hess' thermal law , " that in the case of different chemical conversions of a substance A with another substance B, the amount of heat exchanged is constant and independent of the way in which the corresponding reactions were carried out ."
Honors
The mineral hessite is named after him.
Web links
- University of Oldenburg - biography of Hermann Heinrich Hess (PDF 56.2 kB)
- Album academicum of the Imperial University of Dorpat , Dorpat 1889
Individual evidence
- ↑ H. Hess: Ueber den Uwarowit, a new mineral species . In: Annals of Physics and Chemistry . tape 24 , 1832, pp. 388–389 ( rruff.info [PDF; 132 kB ; accessed on May 15, 2018]).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hess, Germain Henri |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hess, Hermann Heinrich; Гесс, Герман Иванович; Hess, German Iwanowitsch |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss-Russian chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 7, 1802 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Geneva |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 12, 1850 |
| Place of death | St. Petersburg |