3— A Journeyman Chemist
1. For background and literature citations for the following material on the copula theory, see J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry , vol. 4 (London: Macmillan, 1964), pp. 372-375 and 506-512.
2. A. Laurent, Méthode de chimie (Paris: Mallet & Bachelier, 1854), pp. 249-250; trans. W. Odling, Chemical Method (London: Cavendish Society, 1855), pp. 204-205 (quoted here).
3. R. Bunsen, "Untersuchungen fiber die Kakodylreihe," Annalen , 37 (1841), 1-57; 42 (1842), 14-46; 46 (1843), 1-48; Berzelius to Wöhler, 29 January 1841, in Wallach, BWB , 2 , 220.
4. Kolbe, "Notiz über einige gepaarte Verbindungen der Chlorkohlenstoffe," Annalen , 49 (1844), 339-341. These are (mostly) Berzelian four-volume formulas, with C = 12 and O = 16. Here Kolbe used barred symbols to indicate double atoms and superscripts rather than subscripts, in accordance with Berzelius' preference. The equation represents a composite of several that are found in the paper.
5. Kolbe, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der gepaarten Verbindungen," Annalen 54 (1845), 145-188.
6. Ibid., p. 146.
7. Ibid., pp. 186-188.
8. Ibid., pp. 145 and 181-186.
5. Kolbe, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der gepaarten Verbindungen," Annalen 54 (1845), 145-188.
6. Ibid., p. 146.
7. Ibid., pp. 186-188.
8. Ibid., pp. 145 and 181-186.
5. Kolbe, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der gepaarten Verbindungen," Annalen 54 (1845), 145-188.
6. Ibid., p. 146.
7. Ibid., pp. 186-188.
8. Ibid., pp. 145 and 181-186.
5. Kolbe, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der gepaarten Verbindungen," Annalen 54 (1845), 145-188.
6. Ibid., p. 146.
7. Ibid., pp. 186-188.
8. Ibid., pp. 145 and 181-186.
9. J. H. Brooke, "Wöhler's Urea and Its Vital Force?—A Verdict from the Chemists," Ambix , 15 (1968), 84-114; C. A. Russell, "The Changing Role of Synthesis in Organic Chemistry," Ambix , 34 (1987), 169-180.
10. Berzelius, JB for 1844, 25 (1846), 90-96; ibid. for 1845, 26 (1847), 77-93 and 405-412 (quote on p. 410).
11. Berzelius, "Ansichten in Betreff der organischen Zusammensetzung," Annalen der Physik und Chemie , [3] 8 (1846), 161-188, esp. pp. 161-163, 176, and 185-188.
12. Hofmann, "Erinnerungen an Peter Griess," Berichte , 24 (1891), 1007-1057 (on pp. 1022-1023); Jacob Volhard, August Wilhelm yon Hofmann: Ein Lebensbild (Berlin: Friedländer, 1902), pp. 30-39.
13. Edward Frankland, reminiscences of Kolbe sent to Hermann Ost shortly after Kolbe's death, SSDM 3576. Doris Street no longer exists; in the nineteenth century, it lay half a mile north of the Oval, south of the Thames. Belvedere Road runs between Westminster and Waterloo Bridges, parallel to and not far from the right bank of the Thames. Neither Hofmann nor Frank-land mentioned Kolbe's other residence. Because Hofmann married in August 1846, I assume that Kolbe lived first with Hofmann, then moved near Frankland.
14. Frankland, Sketches from the Life of Edward Frankland (London: Spottiswoode, 1901), p. 167. This is the rare (unexpurgated) first edition.
15. Frankland to Hermann Ost, 20 December 1884, SSDM 3575.
16. Georg Lockemann, HK, p. 126.
17. Frankland to Ost, SSDM 3576; Wöhler to Kolbe, 21 November 1849, SSDM 3591.
18. Kolbe to Bunsen, 11 February 1846, SSDM 3632; Bunsen to Kolbe, 18 February 1846, SSDM 3621; H. T. De la Beche, Lyon Playfair, and Warington Smyth, Reports on the Gases and Explosions in Collieries (London: Clowes, 1847), especially pp. 5-6; O. Krätz, "Historische Experimente (1846), Hermann Kolbe und Robert Wilhelm Bunsen: Eudiometrische Analysen von Grubengas," Chem. Exp. Didakt ., 3 (1977), 31-36. Kolbe found that the flammable portion of firedamp consists almost entirely of methane, consistent with earlier English research and inconsistent with work by other Europeans. His name was not mentioned in Playfair's report.
19. Useful details on Playfair and the Museum of Economic Geology are in C. A. Russell, Lancastrian Chemist: The Early Years of Sir Edward Frankland (Milton Keynes: Open Univ. Press, 1986), pp. 141-145.
20. Dated entry in MS. notebook, SSDM 3811, unpaginated; this is the earliest of six of Kolbe's laboratory notebooks donated to the Deutsches Museum by Kolbe's daughter, Johanna von Meyer.
21. Ibid. By 7 December 1846 he had sufficiently promising results publicly to announce the subject of a future article on organic electrolyses: "Observations on the Oxidizing Power of Oxygen when disengaged by means of the Voltaic Electricity," Memoirs and Proceedings of the Chemical Society , 3 (1846), 285-287 (on p. 287).
20. Dated entry in MS. notebook, SSDM 3811, unpaginated; this is the earliest of six of Kolbe's laboratory notebooks donated to the Deutsches Museum by Kolbe's daughter, Johanna von Meyer.
21. Ibid. By 7 December 1846 he had sufficiently promising results publicly to announce the subject of a future article on organic electrolyses: "Observations on the Oxidizing Power of Oxygen when disengaged by means of the Voltaic Electricity," Memoirs and Proceedings of the Chemical Society , 3 (1846), 285-287 (on p. 287).
22. Kolbe, "On the Decomposition of Valerianic Acid by the Voltaic Current," Memoirs and Proceedings of the Chemical Society , 3 (1847), 378-380 (H = 1, C = 6, O = 8, four volumes). Kolbe was by no means the first to study the electrolysis of organic compounds, but he was certainly the earliest to achieve consistent success. See Alexander Moser, Die elektrolytische Prozesse der organischen Chemie (Halle: Knapp, 1910), pp. 1-13. The saturated hydrocarbon described by Kolbe was presumably the dimer of the radical of valeric acid, octane; the olefinic by-product was probably isobutylene.
23. Frankland, Sketches , p. 70.
24. Frankland and Kolbe, "Upon the Chemical Constitution of Metacetonic Acid, and Some Other Bodies Related to It," Memoirs and Proceedings of the Chemical Society , 3 (1847), 386-391.
25. Frankland to Ost, 20 December 1884, SSDM 3575. Bunsen's letter to Kolbe inviting Frankland to his lab is dated 9 April 1847, SSDM 3622.
26. Frankland, Sketches , pp. 72-78 and 261-264.
27. Ibid.; SSDM 3576; Lockemann, HK, p. 126. In letters to Frankland after Kolbe's death, Ost told him of the death of this (unnamed) sister in 1881, and Bertha Ost, née Kolbe, reminisced about Frankland's 1847 visit: H. Ost to Frankland, 25 December 1884, and B. Ost to Frankland, 1 April 1885, Frankland Archive, 01.04.1527 and 01.04.85.
26. Frankland, Sketches , pp. 72-78 and 261-264.
27. Ibid.; SSDM 3576; Lockemann, HK, p. 126. In letters to Frankland after Kolbe's death, Ost told him of the death of this (unnamed) sister in 1881, and Bertha Ost, née Kolbe, reminisced about Frankland's 1847 visit: H. Ost to Frankland, 25 December 1884, and B. Ost to Frankland, 1 April 1885, Frankland Archive, 01.04.1527 and 01.04.85.
28. Frankland and Kolbe, "Über die chemische Constitution der Säuren
der Reihe (C 2 H 2 ) n O 4 und der unter dem Namen 'Nitrile' bekannten Verbindungen," Annalen , 65 (1848), 288-304.
29. Frankland and Kolbe, "Über die Zersetzungsproducte des Cyanäthyls durch Einwirkung von Kalium," Annalen , 65 (1848), 269-287.
30. Edward Frankland diary, 27 January and 7 February 1848, Royal Society, MS. 221 XII b. 9.
31. Sketches , p. 175.
32. Frankland, "On the Isolation of the Organic Radicals," JCS , 2 (1849), 263-296 (on p. 263).
33. Ibid.; Frankland, "Researches on the Organic Radicals," JCS , 3 (1850), 30-52, 322-347 (on pp. 46-47); Frankland, Experimental Researches in Pure, Applied, and Physical Chemistry (London, 1877), pp. 67-118. As Hofmann noted, Liebig had predicted in 1834 that potassium and ethyl iodide might be used to prepare ethyl: see Hofmann, "The Life-Work of Liebig," in Zur Erinnerung an vorangegangene Freunde (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1888), 1 , 274.
32. Frankland, "On the Isolation of the Organic Radicals," JCS , 2 (1849), 263-296 (on p. 263).
33. Ibid.; Frankland, "Researches on the Organic Radicals," JCS , 3 (1850), 30-52, 322-347 (on pp. 46-47); Frankland, Experimental Researches in Pure, Applied, and Physical Chemistry (London, 1877), pp. 67-118. As Hofmann noted, Liebig had predicted in 1834 that potassium and ethyl iodide might be used to prepare ethyl: see Hofmann, "The Life-Work of Liebig," in Zur Erinnerung an vorangegangene Freunde (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1888), 1 , 274.
34. Liebig to Hofmann, 8 December 1849, in Brock, LHB , p. 88.
35. Ernst Dreyer, Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn in 150 Jahren deutscher Geistesgeschichte (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1936), pp. 3-32; Margarete and Wolfgang Schneider, eds., Justus von Liebig: Briefe an Vieweg (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1986). The company moved to Wiesbaden in 1967; the Vieweghaus has been renovated and converted into a state museum.
36. Liebig to Vieweg, 28 April 1847, in M. and W. Schneider, Justus von Liebig , pp. 215-216.
37. Kolbe to E. Vieweg, 12 August 1847, VA 18. Wöhler told Kolbe on 16 January 1847 that he had recommended him for the position, but he had not yet heard whether Vieweg was going to take his advice (SSDM 3579).
38. Friedrich Knapp, "Friedrich Varrentrapp," Berichte , 10 (1877), 2291-2297.
39. Ost, HK, 121; Lockemann, "Kolbe," p. 126; Frankland's 1884 reminiscences, in SSDM 3576; Frankland diary, 31 May to 3 June 1849, Royal Society, MS. 221 XII b. 9. Ost replied to Frankland's reminiscence by informing him that Franziska von Spilker ended up marrying badly and "ist verkommen und verschollen": Ost to Frankland, 25 December 1884, Frankland Archive 01.04.1527.
40. Helmuth Albrecht, Technische Bildung zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis: Die Technische Hochschule Braunschweig 1862-1914 (Hildesheim: Ohms, 1987), pp. 37-40.
41. Ost, HK, p. 121; Dreyer, Vieweg , pp. 32-34; Frankland diary, 1 June 1849, Royal Society, MS. 221 XII b. 9.
42. Kolbe to Frankland, 1 August 1848, Frankland Archive 01.02.1297.
43. Ost, HK, p. 121; "Pfaff, Adam," Allgemeine deutsche Biographie , 25 (Leipzig, 1887), p. 580.
44. Kolbe to Wöhler, 2 February 1848, with Wöhler's reply on same sheet, SSDM 3577; Liebig to Kolbe, 9 February 1848, SSDM 3525; Wöhler to Kolbe, 25 January, 19 February 1848, and no date, SSDM 3581, 3580, and 3583.
45. A. J. Rocke, Chemical Atomism in the Nineteenth Century (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1984), pp. 177-182 and passim.
46. Kolbe, ''Formeln, chemische," Handwörterbuch , 3 (1848), 174-178 (on p. 176). The publication date of the fascicle in which this article appears was determined to be September 1848 by Oberleiter Lücke of Vieweg Verlag, noted on Kolbe's letter to Lücke of 1 January 1878, VA 397.
47. Ibid., p. 177.
46. Kolbe, ''Formeln, chemische," Handwörterbuch , 3 (1848), 174-178 (on p. 176). The publication date of the fascicle in which this article appears was determined to be September 1848 by Oberleiter Lücke of Vieweg Verlag, noted on Kolbe's letter to Lücke of 1 January 1878, VA 397.
47. Ibid., p. 177.
48. Kolbe, "Gepaarte Verbindungen," Handwörterbuch , 3 (1848), pp. 439-444; publication date was determined by Lücke as November 1848, Kolbe to Lücke, 5 January 1878, VA 398.
49. In 1881 Kolbe drew attention to the importance of this shift in his thinking ( JpC , 131 , 312-313).
50. Bunsen to Kolbe, 25 December 1847, SSDM 3496.
51. Kolbe, Ausführliches Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie , 2 vols. (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1854-1864). There was a third volume as well as a second edition, but these were produced by Kolbe's students and others.
52. Frankland, SSDM 3576; Ost, HK, p. 121; Kolbe to Frankland, 24 November 1863, Frankland Archive 01.04.73. However, Kolbe's letter to Georg Liebig ("Freitag Nachmittag" [14 June 1850], Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Ana 377, II B) mentions his intention to work collaboratively with Varrentrapp in the latter's laboratory.
53. Bunsen to Frankland, 1 August 1848, Frankland Archive 01.02.1288, regarding Kolbe's stay in 1848; Kolbe to Frankland, 1 August 1848, from Marburg, Frankland Archive 01.02.1297; Kolbe to E. Vieweg, 7 August and 27 August 1848, both from Marburg, VA 23 and 24; Frankland, SSDM 3376, regarding late summer 1849; Frankland diary, 24 July 1849, reporting on a letter from Kolbe suggesting his arrival in Marburg would be ca. 7 August, Royal Society, MS. 221 XII b. 9; Kolbe to Vieweg, 16 August 1850, from Giessen, VA 26; Kolbe to Georg Liebig, 23 July and 31 August 1850, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Ana 377, II B.
54. Frankland, SSDM 3576.
55. Kolbe to Vieweg, 7 August 1848, VA 23.
56. Kolbe, "Untersuchungen über die Elektrolyse organischer Verbindungen," Annalen , 69 (1849), 257-294; "Researches on the Electrolysis of Organic Compounds," JCS , 2 (1849), 157-184.
57. Liebig to Kolbe, 18 February 1849, SSDM 3527. Since at least 1847, and probably even earlier, Liebig had been following Kolbe's work with great interest and admiration. See, e.g., Liebig to Kolbe, 17 May 1848, SSDM 3526; Liebig to Vieweg, 20 January 1848, in M. and W. Schneider, eds., Briefe an Vieweg , p. 225; and Liebig to Hofmann, 25 April 1847, 2 February 1848, and 1 February 1849, in Brock, LHB , pp. 72, 77, and 83.
58. Kolbe, "Über die chemische Natur und Constitution der organischen Radicale," Annalen , 75 (1850), 211-239, and 76 (1850), 1-73; "On the Chemical Constitution and Nature of Organic Radicals," JCS , 3 (1850), 369-405, and 4 (1851), 41-79. Kolbe's letter to Liebig of 11 March 1850 is referred to in Liebig's reply of 12 April 1850, SSDM 3528; Hofmann to Kolbe, no date [ca. March 1850], SSDM 3553.
59. Kolbe, "Chemische Natur," pp. 211-217, 29.
60. Ibid., pp. 29, 57, 65-73.
61. Ibid., pp. 234-235, 36.
59. Kolbe, "Chemische Natur," pp. 211-217, 29.
60. Ibid., pp. 29, 57, 65-73.
61. Ibid., pp. 234-235, 36.
59. Kolbe, "Chemische Natur," pp. 211-217, 29.
60. Ibid., pp. 29, 57, 65-73.
61. Ibid., pp. 234-235, 36.
62. He was usually perfectly frank and public about such failed predictions, which greatly assists the historian. Four examples of such explicit predictive failures are "Beiträge" (see n. 5), pp. 160 and 183; "Zersetzungsproducte" (seen. 29), pp. 269-270; and "Researches'' (see n. 56), pp. 157-158.
63. Kolbe, "Chemische Natur," pp. 65-73.
64. Ibid., p. 69. I have used with slight alteration the English translation (see n. 58), p. 76.
63. Kolbe, "Chemische Natur," pp. 65-73.
64. Ibid., p. 69. I have used with slight alteration the English translation (see n. 58), p. 76.
65. Hofmann, "Researches on the Volatile Organic Bases, pt. II," JCS , 1 (1848), 269-281 (on p. 280).
66. Ibid.; ibid., pt. I, JCS , 1 (1848), 159-173; ibid., pt. III, JCS , 1 (1848), 285-317 (on pp. 312-313 and 317).
67. Ibid., pt. V, JCS , 2 (1849), 300-335 (on p. 334-335).
65. Hofmann, "Researches on the Volatile Organic Bases, pt. II," JCS , 1 (1848), 269-281 (on p. 280).
66. Ibid.; ibid., pt. I, JCS , 1 (1848), 159-173; ibid., pt. III, JCS , 1 (1848), 285-317 (on pp. 312-313 and 317).
67. Ibid., pt. V, JCS , 2 (1849), 300-335 (on p. 334-335).
65. Hofmann, "Researches on the Volatile Organic Bases, pt. II," JCS , 1 (1848), 269-281 (on p. 280).
66. Ibid.; ibid., pt. I, JCS , 1 (1848), 159-173; ibid., pt. III, JCS , 1 (1848), 285-317 (on pp. 312-313 and 317).
67. Ibid., pt. V, JCS , 2 (1849), 300-335 (on p. 334-335).
68. Hofmann, "Researches Regarding the Molecular Constitution of the Volatile Organic Bases," PTRS , 140 (received 26 December 1849, read 17 January 1850), 93-131.
69. Hofmann to Kolbe, no date [ca. March 1850], SSDM 3553. Hofmann also told Liebig how much he enjoyed this research: Hofmann to Liebig, 29 January 1850, in Brock, LHB , p. 91.
70. Ibid.
69. Hofmann to Kolbe, no date [ca. March 1850], SSDM 3553. Hofmann also told Liebig how much he enjoyed this research: Hofmann to Liebig, 29 January 1850, in Brock, LHB , p. 91.
70. Ibid.
71. Frankland, "On a New Series of Organic Bodies Containing Metals and Phosphorus," JCS , 2 (1849), 297-299.
72. Frankland, "Researches" (see n. 33), pp. 48-51; "Researches on the Organic Radicals," JCS , 3 (1850), 322-347 (on p. 324); and "On a New Series of Organic Bodies Containing Metals," PTRS , 142 (1852), 417-444 (on pp. 440-442).
73. Kolbe, "Chemische Natur," pp. 45 and 49-51.
74. Ibid., pp. 50-51.
73. Kolbe, "Chemische Natur," pp. 45 and 49-51.
74. Ibid., pp. 50-51.