Robert Wilhelm Bunsen
1811-1899
Bunsen's Life
The son of a German linguistics professor from the University of Grottingen, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen entered the world on March 31, 1811. He studied chemisty at Gottingen, and while he was still young, Bunsen had a series of appointments in various universities as a lecturer.
In 1852, Robert Bunsen was appointed the Professor of Experimental Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg, and he kept this position for the rest of his working life.
Robert Bunsen's greatest achievement in the field of chemistry may in fact have been his contribution as a teacher. Friendly and approachable, Bunsen became ranked at the level of the other great German science lecturers of the day, Wohler and Leibig, and was accorded great respect. Students flocked from all parts of the globe in order to study under Bunsen.
Although Bunsen was a warm character, he never married, instead choosing to devote his life to his scientific work and to his students.
Robert Bunsen worked in chemistry and published scientific papers until he was nearly 80 years old. Bunsen died, approximately ten years later on August 16, 1899.
Important Research Work
Believe it or not, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen's first (completely voluntary) important researches were on a dangerous, evil-smelling organic compounds of arsenic. During his work on the substances, one experiment exploded, blinding him in one eye. Consequently, Bunsen suffered arsenic poisoning from which he almost died.
Not surprisingly, after that failed arsenic experiment, Bunsen turned his research away from organic chemistry, and no longer allowed it to be studied in his Heidelberg laboratory.
Bunsen is best known, however, for his invention of a number of useful pieces of laboratory equipment. He invented the grease-spot thermometer (comparisons of light intensity), a battery (1.9 V cell with zinc and carbon electrodes) and the ice calorimeter (measuring the heat capacities of substances available in small amounts).
The Bunsen Burner, which bears his name and is standard in almost every chemical laboratory worldwide, was actually invented by Bunsen's technician, Peter Desaga.
Bunsen's most significant work was his pioneer study of chemical spectroscopy with Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, the study of light passed through a prism. The two scientists invented the spectroscope, which was based on the principle that a spectrum of light given out by an alloy of two metals showed the lines of both, and:
"Thus a means has been found to determine the composition of the sun and fixed stars with the same accuracy that we determine sulphuric acid, chlorine etc., with our chemical reagents. Substances on this earth can be determined by this method just as easily as on the sun, so that, for example, I have been able to detect lithium in twenty grams of sea water." (Bunsen)
This work has been of great importance to chemistry.
Source: "Chemistry for Sixth Forms" by A.H. Wooff, D.T. Howarth and R.C. Rendle |
