Robert+Wilhelm+Bunsen

Group Members: Julia Huang, Carmen Lee, Canita Mai

= Robert Wilhelm Bunsen  =


Robert Wilhelm Bunsen is the youngest of the four sons of a professor of modern languages at the University of Göttingen. He was born in Göttingen, Germany, on March 31, 1811. He began studying chemistry in Göttingen after attending school in the city of Holzminden. At the age of 19, after receiving his doctorate he went to see the “new small steam engine” at the Henschel's machinery manufacturing plant. In Berlin, he had to contact with Runge after seeing the mineralogical collections of Weiss. He continued on with his geological trip visiting through the Eifel Mountains with Liebig and with Mitscherlich. Following the journey to Paris and Vienna, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen also met some amazing chemists while traveling to the Sevres porcelain works. This journey was an advantage to his career and it was a great chance of meeting other amazing chemists. After this trip he returned to Germany, and became a lecturer at Göttingen. He started to work on his experiment of the insolubility of metal salts of arsenious acid. After of nearly killing himself he pursued on with chemistry. He started to investigate the theory of geyser action. He collected gases released from the volcanic vents and performed extensive chemical analyses of volcanic rock. //"To confirm his theory, Bunsen made an artificial geyser, consisting of a basin of water having a long tube extending below it. He heated the tube at the bottom and at about the middlepoint. As the water at the middle reached its boiling point, all of the phenomena of geyser action were beautifully shown, including the preliminary thundering. That was in 1846. From that day to this Bunsen's theory of geyser action has been generally accepted by geologists."// Darrow, Floyd, Masters of Science and Invention, Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., New York, 1923, p.212. His spend most of the time being with his students, in his laboratory and never got married. His famous students were Dmitri Mendeleev and Lothar Meyer. His pursue of chemistry never ended, he was elected to the Chemical Society of London in 1842 and in 1853 he received the Academie des Sciences. In 1858, he was named a foreign fellow of the Royal Society of London and in 1860 he received the Copley Medal. In 1877, Bunsen and Kirchhoff were recipients of the first Davy Medal. In 1898, the Albert Medal was awarded as acknowledment of Bunsen's many scientific contributions to industry. He left the chemistry behind and pursued back to his dream of geology after his retirement at the age of 78. He eventually died on 16 August 1899 (aged 88) Heidelberg, Germany.

Interesting Facts:

 * Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (31 March 1811 – 16 August 1899)Göttingen, Germany
 * Close Casualties: Arsenic poisioning; explosion with cacodyl
 * His discovery of the use of iron oxide hydrate as a precipitating agent is still the best known antidote against arsenic poisoning to this day
 * Lost sight in his right eye after cacodyl explsion
 * Many Chemistry students might not know about his contributions beside the improvement of the laboratory burner
 * Recieved doctorate at age 19.
 * Made artificial geyser to confirm his geyser action theory.
 * Bunsen burner's apparatus is not his design
 * Wrote many articles
 * Upon receiving an award he said: "Such things had value for me only because they pleased my mother; she is now dead."
 * Died in Heidelberg.
 * Cause of Death, unspecified

Major experiments, contributions, or discoveries:
media type="youtube" key="-u03TZeCnAA&hl=en&fs=1" height="384" width="729"

Reference:
http://corrosion-doctors.org/Biographies/BunsenBio.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u03TZeCnAA http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/ci/1992/Bunsen.html http://www.nndb.com/people/900/000095615/