This Week in Chemistry: June 9 - June 15

June 09, 2008 at 01:36 AM

Analtech, Inc. is proud to provide this public service feature - This Week in Chemistry - a recap of major breakthroughs in chemistry as well as the commemoration of key individuals birthdates.

Analtech thanks Dr. Leopold May of The Catholic University of America forproviding this information - you can visit his web site by clicking here.


June 9

b. 1862 Herbert B. Baker, researcher on effect of water on chemical change; authority on desiccating gases & poison gases.  


June 10

b. 1832 Nikolaus A. Otto invented and patented four-stroke internal-combustion engine (first practical alternative to steam engine as a power source).

b. 1848 Johann C. W. F. Tiemann, elucidated the structure of the interrelated terpenes, Reimer-Tiemann reaction (1876) and the Tiemann rearrangement of amide oxides (1891).


June 11

b. 1842 Carl von Linde constructed equipment by which air could be liquefied on commercial scale, 1895.

b. 1885 Frederick G. Keyes, researcher on thermodynamic properties of matter,      
kinetic theory, & application of thermodynamics to equilibria.


June 12

b. 1900 Wallace R. Brode, authority on chemical spectroscopy, president of ACS.

b. 1899 Fritz A. Lipmann discovered coenzyme A & central role of ATP in metabolism; Nobel Prize in Medicine (1953) for his discovery of co-enzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism.


June 13

b. 1827 Charles A. Goessmann made an analysis of peanuts, research in chemistry of sorghum and sugar beets; president of ACS.  

b. 1831 James Clerk Maxwell, researcher in electromagnetic theory (Maxwell's equations), thermodynamics (Maxwell relations), and kinetic theory of gases (Maxwell velocity distribution); devised the "Maxwell's demon”.

b. 1923 Lloyd Conover, invented tetracycline; US patent 2,699,054.


June 14

b. 1862 Johann Ulrich Nef, “Father of Physical Organic Chemistry”; discovered the valence of carbon; research on free radicals and transition state in organic reactions.  

b. 1868 Karl Landsteiner, discovered the human blood groups; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine  (1930) for his discovery of human blood groups

o The paper “Hard and Soft Acids and Bases” by Ralph G. Pearson, which was published in the Journal of American Chemical Society (1965, 83, 3533), was received on this date, 1965.


June 15

b. 1754 Juan José D'Elhuyar, discoverer of tungsten (W, 74) from wolframite ore (1783).  Died 20 Sep 1796

b. 1755 Antoine François de Fourcroy, chemical nomenclature with Lavoisier and Berthollet; described salts such as calcium chloride.

b. 1879 Samuel C. Lind, researcher in radioactivity & photochemistry; invented an electroscope for radium measurements (Lind Electroscope); discovered the ionization theory of the chemical effects of radium rays.

b. 1906 Byron Riegel, researcher on oral contraceptives.

o Auer von Welsbach announced separation of didymium into Nd & Pr, 1885.

o Patent No. 3,633 on vulcanized rubber awarded to Charles Goodyear as “improvement in India-rubber fabrics”, 1844.