Rudolf Christian Böttger

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Rudolf Christian Böttger

Rudolf Christian Böttger (the spelling of the family name was later changed to Boettger ; * April 28, 1806 in Aschersleben , † April 29, 1881 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German chemist and physicist .

Life

Honorary grave in the main cemetery

At the age of 18, he first studied theology in Halle an der Saale and only dealt with the natural sciences in passing. At the age of 22 he took a position as private tutor and educator in Reifenstein and Mühlhausen / Thuringia . But then he discovered his real calling and, after having shelved his church career, studied physics and chemistry from 1831.

In 1835 Böttger became a teacher of physics and chemistry in the Physikalischer Verein in Frankfurt and only two years later did his doctorate in Jena under Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner . Now the time of his most fruitful work began. In 1842 he was appointed professor. Despite several calls, including to Dorpat and Halle, he stayed in his Frankfurt post throughout his life.

He was the father of the paleontologist Oskar Boettger .

Inventions

He dedicated himself particularly to applied chemistry and was responsible for or involved in several inventions and innovations:

  • a chemical process for dehairing in tannery, surgery and cosmetics using calcium hydrogen sulfide (1838).
  • From 1841 he further developed the method of electroplating , invented by H. Jacobi (1837) , in order to use it to produce larger objects such as monuments
  • an electrochemical process for nickel plating (1842)
  • together with August Bromeis he developed a new method of glass printing, hyalography (1842)
  • In 1846 he discovered gun cotton (cellulose nitrate) and collodion .
  • the invention of safety matches with heads made of potassium chlorate , antimony sulfide and glass powder (1848).
  • a galvanic process for platinizing and silver-plating glass (1852) and for nickel-plating and steeling easily oxidizable metals (1872-74).

Böttger largely renounced patents and published his research results freely.

Honors and memberships

Bronze bust in front of the Physics Institute in Frankfurt am Main
  • Böttger had been appointed professor by the Grand Council of the Free City of Frankfurt am Main . The figures of the Gutenberg monument on the Roßmarkt , a large inner-city square, were electroformed by him between 1854 and 1858.
  • Böttger's grave is located in Frankfurt's main cemetery . The Böttgerstrasse in the Nordend district was named after him. A relief on the west wing of the Römer shows him as an important technician.
  • Böttger was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown by the Austrian Emperor .
  • He received the Wasa Order from the Swedish King Oskar.
  • In 1880 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .
  • The sculptor Friedrich Schierholz created a monument bust in 1882 . Today it stands in front of the building of the Physikalischer Verein in the Senckenberg facility.
  • In his honor, the asteroid (251595) Rudolfböttger was named on February 18, 2011 .
  • Aschersleben, the town of his birth, was the first municipality in Saxony-Anhalt to set up an educational foundation in 2004 - the Rudolf Christian Boettger Foundation.

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Minor Planet Circulars # 73985. (PDF) In: Minor Planet Center . February 18, 2011, accessed July 22, 2017 .
  2. ^ Description of the foundation on the website of the city of Aschersleben, accessed on July 28, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Böttger, Rudolf Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Böttger, Rudolph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and physicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1806
PLACE OF BIRTH Aschersleben
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1881
Place of death Frankfurt am Main