Walther Hempel
Walther Mathias Hempel (* May 5, 1851 in Pulsnitz ; † December 1, 1916 in Dresden , also cited as: Walter Matthias Hempel ) was a German chemist , known for his work on electrolysis and technical gas analysis .
Life
Walther Hempel grew up in Dresden as the son of a ribbon weaver owner. After the Matura examination at age 16 he studied for three years Chemistry at the Royal Saxon Polytechnic in Dresden and then volunteered for the 12th Artillery Regiment in the Franco-German War . From 1871 to 1872 he studied organic chemistry at the Berlin Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität under August Wilhelm von Hofmann and Adolf von Baeyer . In 1872 he went to Robert Bunsen in Heidelberg and passed his doctoral examination there in the same year with summa cum laude .
After a year he returned to Dresden and initially worked as an assistant to Hofrat Fleck in the chemical central office for public health in Dresden. From 1876 until his habilitation in 1878 he was assistant to Rudolf Schmitt at the chemical laboratory of the Dresden Polytechnic . His habilitation thesis on technical gas analysis (1878; was printed in 1880 as New Methods for the Analysis of Gases and represents the continuation of the work Gasometric Methods by Robert Bunsen, some of the graphics using Bunsen's printing plates.)
In 1879, at the age of only 28, the young Hempel was appointed to the chair of technical chemistry at the Royal Saxon Polytechnic in Dresden to represent the retired Heinrich Wilhelm Stein (1811–1889). The following year he was appointed full professor for technical chemistry and head of the laboratory for inorganic and analytical chemistry . He held the post of rector from 1891 to 1893 and 1902 to 1903. Hempel retired in 1912 but still lectured until 1914. In 1888 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . From 1914 to 1916 he was on the board of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors . In 1908 he was accepted as a full member of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences in Leipzig .
Hempel was married to Luisa Delia (1848-1910), née Monks, the sister of the American surgeon (and inventor of the straw game) George Howard Monks . One of the children was the Dresden art historian Eberhard Hempel .
Services
Hempel worked on the simplification of dimensional analysis methods, in particular gas analysis, on the development of the experimental autoclave , on volcanic gases ; he synthesized obsidian and pumice in the laboratory and first introduced the use of a diaphragm in chlor-alkali electrolysis . He is also considered the spiritual father of quantitative spectral analysis in metallurgy . The Hempel pipette , the Hempel burette and the Hempel oven , as well as the Walther-Hempel-Bau (since 1994) at the TU Dresden are named after Hempel . Hempel and Clemens Winkler are considered to be the founder of technical gas analysis.
One of his students is Louis Munroe Dennis in the USA, who introduced the methods of gas analysis there and published a translation of Hempel's book in 1902.
Fonts
- About a device to significantly accelerate filtration with the air pump 1875.
- Beyond the limit of the detectability of the carbon oxide gas. , Journal for Analytical Chemistry December 1, 1879. ( online )
- New methods for analyzing the gases. 1880.
- Via an apparatus for fractional distillation. 1881.
- The determination of the nitroglycerine content in dynamite. 1881.
- To analyze the explosives. Zeitschrift für Analytische Chemie 1887, pp. 312-317.
- Some apparatus and laboratory equipment. , 1887.
- About working at low temperatures. 1902.
- Gas analytical methods. 1890, 1900, 1913.
literature
- Edmund Graefe: Selected lectures and essays by Walther Hempel. Publishing house for specialist literature, Vienna 1913.
- Robert von Zahn: Walther Hempel - Privy Councilor and Prof. in Dresden in memory (obituary). Dresden 1916.
- F. Foerster : Walther Hempel † (obituary). In: Journal for Applied Chemistry . Vol. 30, No. 1, 1917, pp. 1-12. Imprint
- Walther Fischer: Hempel, Walther Matthias. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 513 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Ute Hendlmeier, Günther Landgraf: History of the Technical University of Dresden in documents, pictures [and memories]. Volume 2, Science in Dresden from the last third of the 19th century to 1945. (PDF; 17.0 MB). TU Dresden University Archives , Dresden 1994, ISBN 3-86005-140-7 , p. 50.
- Klaus Herzog: Analytical chemistry in Dresden through the ages. Dissertation. Institute for Technical Chemistry. Dresden 2002, pp. 6-8.
- Heiner Hegewald: On the development of technical chemistry in the 19th century with special consideration of the chemist training at the Technical University of Dresden and its predecessor institutions. Dissertation. Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. Halle-Wittenberg 2005.
Web links
- Literature by and about Walther Hempel in the catalog of the German National Library
- Walther Hempel in the Stadtwiki Dresden
- Detailed biography at Cicerone Dresden
Individual evidence
- ↑ Member entry of Walther Hempel at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on September 12, 2016.
- ^ Members of the SAW: Walther Hempel. Saxon Academy of Sciences, accessed October 26, 2016 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hempel, Walther |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hempel, Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German chemist, co-founder of technical gas analysis |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 5, 1851 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pulsnitz |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 1, 1916 |
| Place of death | Dresden |