Otto Hönigschmid

Otto Hönigschmid (born March 13, 1878 in Horowitz , Bohemia ; † October 14, 1945 in Munich , suicide) was a Bohemian-German chemist.

Life

After graduating from high school in Prague, he studied chemistry at the University of Prague from 1897 to 1901 , received his doctorate in 1901 under Guido Goldschmiedt on a thesis on organic chemistry and was hired by him as an assistant. From 1904 to 1906 he worked for Henri Moissan in Paris, where he a. a. engaged in the extraction of thorium . After his habilitation on carbides and silicides in Prague in 1908 and a stay abroad, he became a professor at the German Technical University in Prague in 1911 and at the University of Munich in 1918 .

Since 1921 he was a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1932 Hönigschmid was appointed a member of the Leopoldina . In 1936 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1940 he received the Liebig medal from the Association of German Chemists .

Brother Hönigschmid was the art historian Rudolf Hönigschmid .

Scientific achievements

He was particularly concerned with the development of new, precise methods of determining the atomic mass and carried out the exact redetermination of the atomic mass on 47 elements .

The multiple checks of the atomic weight of radium , which Marie Curie first determined to be 226.45, was of particular importance . The exact value was of great interest to confirm the uranium decay series . In 1913 he published the value with 225.97; In 1933 he determined the value to be 226.05 (IUPAC value 226.0254 u). The experimental effort at that time was relatively large and required very precise work. The value was determined by him using the mass ratio of radium chloride and radium bromide, both substances first had to be produced with the greatest possible purity.

He also dealt with the determination of the atomic mass of isotopes , such as B. with the chlorine isotopes Cl-35 and Cl-37 separated by Klaus Clusius and G. Dickel and from the potassium isotope K-41.

literature

Grete Ronge: Hönigschmid, Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , pp. 343-345 ( digitized version ).
Hönigschmid Otto. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1959, p. 363.
Robert Schwankner: Otto Hönigschmid (1878–1945) . In: Chemistry in our time , 15th year 1981, No. 5, pp. 163-174, ISSN 0009-2851

Web links

Literature by and about Otto Hönigschmid in the catalog of the German National Library
Homepage Otto Hönigschmid

Individual evidence

↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of Otto Hönigschmid at academictree.org, accessed on February 12, 2018.
↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 118.

personal data
SURNAME	Hönigschmid, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Bohemian-German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 13, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH	Horovice
DATE OF DEATH	October 14, 1945
Place of death	Munich

[1] Life data, publications and academic family tree of Otto Hönigschmid at academictree.org, accessed on February 12, 2018.

[2] Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 118.