Johannes Petrus Minckeleers
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
- Jan Pieter Minckelers, also Minckelaers . In: Winfried Pötsch u. a .: Lexicon of important chemists . Harri Deutsch, 1989
Individual evidence
- ↑ gas . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 11 : Franciscans - Gibson . London 1910, Gas Manufacture - Historical section , p. 483 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
- ^ Willems Fund: People's almanac
- ↑ Maastricht: Symbolically doven van de vlam van het standbeeld Minckeleers
- ↑ 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
personal data | |
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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 |