Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (Bunsen Robert Wilhelm)

(1811-1899)
Born in Gottingen, March 31, 1811. He graduated from the University of Gottingen (1830), aged 19, received a doctorate for the development of the hygrometer. During a trip to Europe in 1832-1833 became acquainted with many famous chemists of his time, visited the industrial enterprises, a course of lectures at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. In 1833-1836 was assistant professor at GцІttingen, in 1836-1839 - a teacher of chemistry at the Higher Industrial School in Kassel. In 1839-1851 - professor of chemistry at Marburg University, in 1852-1889 - Heidelberg. In 1889 he resigned and devoted himself to geology (even in 1848 he spent several months in Iceland, where he studied geysers and gave an explanation of this phenomenon).
The first major work of Bunsen - study cacodyl - refers to the border area between the organic and inorganic chemistry. He obtained the important result here - the discovery that cacodyl is a complex radical, - together with the work of Gay-Lussac's law for the Study of cyanide and Liebig and Wohler in the study of benzene compounds formed the basis of the theory of radicals. In cacodyl, Bunsen investigated other arsenic organic matter, creating chemistry of organometallic compounds. During one of the experiments, the explosion of a vessel with a compound of arsenic, which nearly cost the life of a scientist: he had been poisoned by toxic vapors and blind in one eye, which he had a splinter of glass.

The next important area of science, in which Bunsen left its mark - Electrochemistry. In 1841 he invented the carbon-zinc galvanic cell ( 'element Bunsen'), who had the greatest electromotive force of all the then known chemical sources of current (~ 1,7 V). With the battery, composed of such elements, was pure chromium and manganese by electrolysis of solutions of their chlorides from molten magnesium chloride identified (1852), aluminum, sodium, calcium (1854-1855).

Most known are the work of Bunsen on the photochemistry, which he performed together with the British chemist H. Roscoe (1855-1863). Scientists have studied the action of sunlight on a mixture of hydrogen and chlorine, . turning into hydrogen chloride, . and in 1862 they have been formulated quantitative law of photochemistry, . under which the amount of photoproduct by the product of the intensity of incident light at the time of its impact on the substance (the law of Bunsen - Roscoe),
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In 1854 Bunsen with G. Kirchhoff began studying the spectra of the flame colored pairs of different metal salts. In 1860, scientists published their joint work, which gave the first description of the spectrograph and substantiated the possibility of detection with the help of unknown elements. These studies led to the creation of the method of spectral analysis, by which Bunsen and Kirchhoff discovered two new elements contained in the salt water sources, cesium (1860) and rubidium (1861). In addition, Bunsen found the antidote to arsenic acid (1834), studied chemistry blast furnace process, developed methods of gas analysis (1845). Being a skilful experimenter, he invented a lot of laboratory instruments: a gas burner (Bunsen burner), water-jet pump, an ice calorimeter, steam calorimeter, photometer with an oil stain. These and other inventions of devices can now be found in any chemical laboratory. The laboratory Bunsen in Heidelberg, like Liebig's laboratory in Giessen, was a scientific school for many young chemists - later famous scientists (Roscoe, Tyndall, Bayer and others).

Died Bunsen in Heidelberg, 16 August 1899.