Paul Schlack

Paul Theodor Schlack (born December 22, 1897 in Stuttgart , † August 19, 1987 in Leinfelden-Echterdingen ) was a German chemist , inventor and professor.

life and work

Schlack showed an early interest in the emerging photography. He attended the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Stuttgart , where he passed his Abitur at the age of 17. He had to do his military service in the First World War between 1915 and 1918 . He was then able to continue his chemistry studies at the Technical University of Stuttgart , which he had begun in 1915 , and passed his diploma examination there in 1921. In 1921/22 he worked in a private scientific laboratory (von Troensegaard) in Copenhagen on proteins , polypeptides and synthetic protein fibers. He then returned to Stuttgart and developed the thiohydantoin breakdown of peptides as William Küster's private assistant . The process was published in 1926 and is known today as the Schlack-Kumpf mining .

In 1924 he switched to the chemical industry and worked in the scientific laboratory of the artificial silk factory in Wolfen (later Agfa Wolfen ). From 1926 to 1946 he headed the Wolfen branch, the research department of Aceta GmbH in Berlin-Lichtenberg . Here, Schlack dealt with the chemical modification of acetate silk as well as with polyurethanes , polyureas and epoxy resins . Among other things, he investigated the suitability of linear polymers based on polyvinyl, polyester and polyamide for the production of synthetic fibers. He also held one of the earliest patents (filed in 1934, granted in 1939) for epoxy resins. In 1935 he was delegated to the American company DuPont for study purposes .

During his experiments on January 29, 1938, Schlack discovered the polymerisability of caprolactam and developed a polyamide fiber from it, which was later to be called Perlon . His invention was patented but kept secret and declared a militarily important material under the code name "Perluran" as part of the war preparations of the National Socialist regime . As a result, a plant for coarse threads (so-called "wire") started up in 1939 and a test factory for silk in Berlin-Lichtenberg in 1940; large-scale production began in Landsberg an der Warthe in 1943 . Above all, parachute covers and tent cords were made from it. In March 1945 Schlack was working over linear polyamides with disulfide doctorate .

Because the Berlin research laboratory had been relocated to Bobingen in February 1945 , Schlack became operations manager there from 1946 for the manufacture of Perlon for civil purposes such as conveyor belts, cords, ropes, belts, tire cord , technical fabrics for cables and for fishing and of course for clothing . He later moved to the artificial silk factory of the former IG Farben in Bobingen as technical director, and in 1955 he became head of fiber research at Hoechst .

In 1961, Schlack was appointed honorary professor for textile chemistry at the TH Stuttgart .

Awards

• 1944: War Merit Cross 1st Class
• 1953: Cross of Merit (Steckkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1958: Adolf von Baeyer commemorative coin of the Society of German Chemists
• 1963: Honorary Member of the British Textile Institute
• 1968: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1987: Merit Medal of the State of Baden-Württemberg
• Max Kehren Medal from the Association of German Textile Finishing Specialists
• The European Chemical Fiber Industry Prize (CIRFS / Comité International de la Rayonne et des Fibers Synthétiques) is named after Paul Schlack.

literature

• Paul Schlack in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• Alexander Kipnis:  Schlack, Paul Theodor. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 18 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Winfried Pötsch u. a. Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989

Web links

• More information at the Institute Dr. Flad, whose sponsoring association “Association of Friends of the Chemical Institute Dr. Flad eV “1965 by Dr. Schlack was co-founded
• Information about Perlon, stockings and Dr. Schlack in the German Hosiery Museum
• Paul Schlack. A fiber does not yet make an economic miracle . on plasticker.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ P. Schlack, W. Kumpf: About a new method for determining the constitution of peptides . In: Hoppe-Seyler's journal for physiological chemistry. Volume 154, Issue 1-3, pp. 125-172, doi : 10.1515 / bchm2.1926.154.1-3.125 .
2. ^ A joint venture between IG Farben and Vereinigte Glanzstofffabriken AG
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} BVG brochure on important people: Paul Schlack, inventor of Perlon , extract as a copy in the Technik-Museum Berlin; P. 90f.
4. ↑ Peter Hallpap: PhDs and Habilitations in Chemistry 1945 - 2000 , Jena, 2012, p. 7.
5. ↑ Honorary Members of the Textile Institute of Manchester ( Memento of the original from July 4, 2008 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.