Johannes Petrus Minckeleers

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Minckeleers statue with the “ever-burning flame”, Maastricht

Johannes Petrus Minckeleers or also Minckelers , Minckelaers and as first name Jan Pieter , (born December 2, 1748 in Maastricht , † July 4, 1824 in Maastricht) was a Dutch scientist and inventor . He is considered to be the discoverer of city gas and luminous gas as well as the inventor of the gas lamp .

Life

Minckeleers studied at the University of Leuven , where he became a professor of natural history. He discovered that when coal is heated in the absence of oxygen, a gas is released that is lighter than air. Instead of coal, he also experimented with wood and peat. He describes this for the first time in a publication in 1784 ( Mémoires sur l'air inflammable tiré de differentes substances ). The luminous gas he discovered was initially used as a lifting gas in gas balloons (the motivation for the invention was a light gas for the Montgolfier brothers' balloons). The combustible gas was mainly used as a light source . In 1785 it was used by Minckeleers himself to illuminate his lecture hall. In 1789 he returned to Maastricht and became a lecturer at the Écoles Centrales. In 1854 the first gas pipes were laid in Maastricht to supply street lighting. He also found a way to clean coal gas with lime.

On the market between St. Matthias Church and the town hall, Minckeleers is depicted as a statue with the "eternally burning flame". The statue was designed by Bart van Hove and inaugurated on July 10, 1904. After a restoration in 2006, the statue was re-erected near Boschstrasse, twenty meters south of its original location. In Heverlee there is also a statue of Minckeleers near a building for applied sciences at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven . A street is named after him in the center of Leuven.

A student association of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the Technical University of Eindhoven is called "TSV Jan Pieter Minckelers", nickname "Japie".

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ gas . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 11 : Franciscans - Gibson . London 1910, Gas Manufacture - Historical section , p. 483 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
  2. ^ Willems Fund: People's almanac
  3. ↑ Maastricht: Symbolically doven van de vlam van het standbeeld Minckeleers
  4. ↑ Minckelers en Arenberg. ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. standbeelden.be  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.standbeelden.be
personal data
SURNAME Minckeleers, Johannes Petrus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Minckeleers, Jan Pieter; Minckelers, Johannes Petrus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch scientist and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1748
PLACE OF BIRTH Maastricht
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1824
Place of death Maastricht