Growth into a Scientific Discipline: The Nineteenth Century - Important Figures of Analytical Chemistry from Germany in Brief Biographies - page 74

made important contributions to analytical chemistry in various ways. In his topic
Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen der analytischen Chemie (Scientific Foundations of
Analytical Chemistry [ 224 , 225 ]), he introduced the expressions dissociation con-
stants, solubility product, ion product, H ion concentration and indicator equilib-
rium into the discipline.
Wilhelm Ostwald's main scientific topics comprise the combustion of ammonia to
nitric acid, the dilution law and the Ostwaldsche Stufenregel (Ostwald's rule), elucida-
tion of electrolytic dissociation, fundamental principles of catalysis, his Farbenlehre
(Colour Theory and System [ 226 ]), design of a Pyknometer (specific gravity bottle)
and a thermostat and a rheostat to the prognosis of combustion cells and solar energy.
He founded (together with van't Hoff 1887) the Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie,
Stöchiometrie und Verwandtschaftslehre (editor until 1921 for 100 volumes! - from
1928 Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie) and cooperated in the determination of
atomic weights in the respective international commissions. In addition, he wrote
numerous topics and articles and worked on philosophical topics. He wrote a whole
series of textbooks on analytical [ 224 , 225 ], general [ 227 , 228 ], inorganic [ 229 ],
physical chemistry [ 230 ], electrochemistry [ 231 ] and several introductions to chem-
istry for the public [ 232 - 238 ]. With proposals to the organisation of sciences and of
scientific literature as well as to a rational use of energy has he extended his activities
beyond chemistry to philosophical confessions, e.g. [ 239 , 240 ].
352 scientists from 30 nations worked with Wilhelm Ostwald between 1887
and 1906 in Leipzig, and 148 doctoral theses were produced under his direc-
tion—in addition ten habilitations. A small collection of renamed scholars might
submit an impression of Ostwalds influence onto the further development of phys-
ical chemistry: Ernst Otto Beckmann, Robert Behrend, Georg Bredig, Walther
Nernst, Max Le Blanc, Theodore William Richards (1868-1928, Nobel Prize
1914), Robert Luther (1868-1945), Alwin Mittasch (1869-1953), Fritz Pregl
(1869-1930, Nobel Prize 1923), Frederick George Donnan (1870-1956), Max
Bodenstein (1871-1942), Eugene C. Sullivan (1872-1962, Corning-Glass Works,
inventor of PYREX glass), Niels Bjerrum (1879-1958).
In 1889, Ostwald (for portrait see Fig. 3.19 ) founded the series Ostwalds
Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften (Ostwalds Classics of Exact Sciences) with
reprints of memorable scientific papers, and edited himself 16 (in total there are
meanwhile almost 300 of those booklets, e.g. [ 55 ]). Another historic series was
initiated 1911: Große Männer — Studien zur Biologie des Genies (Great men—
studies on the biology of the genius) with 11 volumes until 1932.
He obtained the Nobel Prize in 1909 for his research on catalysis and the
principles of chemical reaction kinetics and equilibria, and he became elected to
numerous scientific academies.
Differences with the officials of the Universität Leipzig, starting in 1905, led
him (after a guest professorship in the USA) to resign 1906 and to withdraw to
his big estate and newly built Haus Energie in Grossbothen near Grimma (in the
Leipzig region), where he lived with his family until his death in 1932.
Additional information is given by [ 241 - 250 ].