Richard Meyer (chemist)

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Richard Emil Meyer (born July 20, 1846 in Berlin-Pankow ; † February 26, 1926 in Braunschweig ) was a German chemist .

Life

Meyer was the son of a calico manufacturer and printer and studied chemistry in Berlin from 1864 (with Heinrich Rose , Gustav Magnus and Franz Leopold Sonnenschein , with experimental lessons in Sonnenschein's private laboratory) and from 1865 in Heidelberg (with Gustav Kirchhoff , Hermann Kopp , Hermann von Helmholtz ). He also studied with Friedrich Wöhler in Göttingen and received his doctorate there in 1868 with Hans Hübner on indium . He then did his military service and apprenticed at a calico printing company in Mulhouse , in order to later take over his father's business. In the Franco-Prussian War he was not fully fit for duty in the stage and from 1871 he joined his father's factory. After the company was stopped due to the economic situation in 1873 and he also failed with his own chemical factory, he decided to return to the university and went to Munich to see Adolf von Baeyer to do his habilitation. First, however, in 1876 he accepted the position of teacher for physics and chemistry at the Bündner Kantonschule in Chur . He was also scientifically active (he turned to organic chemistry), supervised doctoral students from Zurich, was a private reviewer and examined mineral waters. He had the chance to work in the state food control in Switzerland, but instead went back to Germany and qualified as a professor with Adolf von Baeyer in Munich in 1886, after having worked for a short time at the Hoechst company . In 1887 he became professor for chemical technology at the state trade school in Reichenberg and in 1889, as successor to Friedrich Ludwig Knapp, professor for chemical technology at the TH Braunschweig . In 1899 he also became professor of chemistry as the successor to Robert Otto . In 1918 he retired. But he continued to give popular science lectures (Meyer was temporarily chairman of the Braunschweiger Verein für Naturwissenschaften) and lectures on the history of chemistry.

Initially he dealt with benzene derivatives, then with analytical chemistry and later with phthaleins , fluoresceins and the structural cause of their fluorescence . With Johannes Stark , he recognized the importance of absorption in the UV for fluorescence. He also dealt with acetylene condensations (formation of ring compounds) under the action of hydrogen at high temperatures. He was considered a good teacher.

In 1900 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . From 1891 to 1918 he was editor of the yearbook for chemistry.

He wrote popular science chemistry books and edited the German translation of Michael Faraday's Christmas lecture at the Royal Institution on the natural history of the candle. He contributed to A. Bolley's Handbook of Chemical Technology (Articles: The Artificially Produced Organic Dyes, Chemical Processing of Plant and Animal Fibers, The Recent Development of the Tar Dye Industry).

He is not to be confused with the German chemist Richard Joseph Meyer .

Fonts

  • About the aspirations and goals of scientific chemistry. 1880.
  • Introduction to the study of aromatic compounds. 1882.
  • The tar dyes industry. 1881.
  • The dyeing and printing of the fabrics. 1891.
  • About the goals and tasks of electrochemistry. 1895.
  • Chemical synthesis, its significance for science and life. 1896.
  • Organic Chemistry Problems. 1901.
  • Victor Meyer, life and work of a German chemist and natural scientist. 1917.
  • Lectures on the history of chemistry. 1922.
  • Chemistry in nature and culture, popular lectures. 1925.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member entry by Richard Emil Meyer at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on February 6, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyer, Richard Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Pankow
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1926
Place of death Braunschweig