Rudolf Benedict

Grave of Rudolf Benedikt in the Vienna Central Cemetery

Rudolf Benedikt (born July 5, 1852 in Döbling , † February 6, 1896 in Vienna ) was an Austrian chemist.

Benedikt went to school in Vienna and studied chemistry at the Vienna Polytechnic from 1868 and a semester in Berlin from 1871 (with Adolf von Baeyer ). He completed his studies in Heidelberg, where he was a student of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff and received his doctorate in 1872. Then he was back in Vienna as an assistant to Josef Pohl at the Polytechnic and then to Heinrich Hlasiwetz . In 1874 he passed the teaching examination. After Hlasiwetz's death, his chair at the Vienna University of Technology was shared and Philipp Weselsky (1828–1890) took over the teaching of analytical chemistry (and Alexander Bauer general chemistry). After his habilitation, Benedikt became an adjunct at Weselsky. He had completed his habilitation in nitrogen chemistry, which was soon expanded to include chemistry of dyes and printing. After Weselsky's death in 1883, Bauer took over the chair again, but Benedikt headed the laboratory for analytical chemistry and held the relevant lectures. In 1885 he became a member of the state examination commission for chemical engineering and headed it from 1890 until his death. He opened a call to Brno in 1888 and in 1890 became associate professor at the Vienna University of Technology. In 1893 the chairs were split again and he became a full professor of analytical chemistry. He was dean of the chemistry department twice. He set up a modern analytical laboratory, but fell ill with cancer as early as 1895. He was a popular teacher and also worked a lot as a reviewer, also internationally (for example in the Nobel trial against the English government for Cordit ).

First he dealt with the chemistry of aromatics and dyes, from 1885 with waxes and fats, especially fat analysis.

On October 5, 1888, Rudolf Benedikt was elected a member ( matriculation no. 2742 ) of the Leopoldina .

Benedict found his final resting place in the old Jewish part of the Vienna Central Cemetery .

Rudolf Benedikt was the father of the historian Heinrich Benedikt .

Fonts

• The artificial dyes ( tar colors ), Kassel: Fischer 1883 (also translated into English, The Chemistry of the coal-tar colors , London: Bell 1886 ( archive.org ), 1889 ( archive.org )
• Analysis of fats and wax types. Julius Springer, Berlin 1886 ( archive.org ), 3rd edition 1897 (with biography of Ferdinand Ulzer), 4th edition 1903 ( archive.org )
  • English translation: Chemical analysis of oils, fats, and waxes and of the commercial products derived therefrom, London 1895, 2nd edition 1898 ( archive.org )

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Benedikt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Member entry of Rudolf Benedikt at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on September 26, 2017.
2. ↑ Georg Gaugusch : Who once was. The upper Jewish bourgeoisie in Vienna 1800–1938 . Volume 1: AK . Amalthea, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-85002-750-2 , pp. 163-164.