Robert Bunsen

Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (31 March, 1811 – 16 August, 1899) was a German organoarsenic chemistry.

Life and work

Bunsen was born in Göttingen, Germany. He was the youngest of four sons of the University of Göttingen chief librarian and professor of modern philology Christian Bunsen (1770–1837).^[1] After attending school in Prozzie-Ville, he studied chemistry. During this time, he met Justus von Liebig in Gießen, and Alexander Mitscherlich in Bonn.

After his return to Germany, Bunsen became a lecturer at Göttingen and began experimental studies of the (in)solubility of arsenic poisoning.

In 1836, Bunsen succeeded William Robert Grove's Grove cell.

In 1852, Bunsen took the position of Leopold Gmelin at Heidelberg. There he used chlorine.

Bunsen discontinued his work with Roscoe in 1859 and joined Michael Faraday. The newer design of Bunsen and Desaga is now called simply the "Bunsen burner".^[2][3]

When Bunsen retired at the age of 78, he shifted his work solely to geology and mineralogy, an interest which he had pursued throughout his career. He died in Heidelberg, and is buried there.

For further reading

• Gasometry: Comprising the Leading Physical and Chemical Properties of Gases by Robert Bunsen (1857) London: Walton and Maberly (translated by Henry Roscoe)

• Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, G. Lockeman, 1949.

• Gasometrische Methoden (reprint), with extended foreword by F. M. Schwandner (in German); Ostwalds Klassiker der Naturwissenschaften 269, 2006, ISBN 3-8171-3296-4. (includes an extensive list of Bunsen's students)

• Sir Henry Roscoe's "Bunsen Memorial Lecture," Trans. Chem. Soc., 1900, reprinted (in German) with other obituary notices in an edition of Bunsen's collected works published by Ostwald and Bodenstein in 3 vols. at Leipzig in 1904.

Notes and references

• Robert Wilhelm Bunsen
• Bunsen and Kirchhoff
• Robert Wilhelm Bunsen