Growth into a Scientific Discipline: The Nineteenth Century - Important Figures of Analytical Chemistry from Germany in Brief Biographies - page 80

Physikalische Chemie) in 1884. He received the Nobel Prize in 1920, earned several
honorary doctoral degrees, was elected as member of 12 scientific academies and of
the Royal Society, and was conferred with the order Pour le m￩rite (France).
As an activity outside chemistry he contributed to the construction of a new
musical instrument in 1930, the electronic Bechstein/Siemens/Nernst - Flügel
(grandpiano) [ 273 ].
It has to be mentioned—although an activity outside analytical chemistry—that
Walther Nernst was among the promoters of chemical warfare during World War
I, when he invented, recommended and tested chemical weapons (besides suitable
poisons mainly possible ways of transport, distribution and applications onto the
sites of the enemies) [ 274 , 275 ].
See also at [ 276 - 280 ].
Max Julius L e B lanc [born May 26, 1865 Barten (now Barciany, Poland), died
July 31, 1943 Leipzig].
Studied chemistry at the universities Tübingen, Munich and Berlin, in
1883-1886, and then became private assistant of August Wilhelm von Hofmann
in Berlin, where he graduated with a PhD in 1888. Afterwards, he worked at
Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig as an assistant (1890-1893) and after his habilitation
as Privatdozent (Assistant Professor). In 1896, he changed to Farbwerke vorm.
Meister Lucius & Brüning AG (colloquially Farbwerke Hoechst, now Hoechst AG
Frankfurt am Main) and directed the electrochemical division. In 1901, he was
appointed to the Ordinariate for physical chemistry at the Technische Hochschule
Karlsruhe (now Karlsruher Institut für Technologie), where he founded the first
Institute for Electrochemistry. In 1906, he became Director of the Institute for
Physical Chemistry of the Universität Leipzig (until his retirement in 1934). He
was also Rector of the Universität Leipzig and member of the Königlich Sächsische
Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften (Royal Saxonian Academy of Sciences, now
Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften) Leipzig and of the Deutsche Akademie
der Naturforscher (German Academy of Sciences) Leopoldina Halle.
LeBlanc (for portrait see Fig. 3.23 ) worked mainly on electrochemistry, both
directed to analytical and technical applications. He found out, that the decomposi-
tion potential in electrolytic solutions is ion specific (1889 [ 281 ]) and introduced
the pH determination by the hydrogen electrode (1893 [ 282 ]) and oscillographes for
the measurement of fast potential changes [ 32 ]. From 1918-1926 he experimented
on natural rubber (caoutchouc). Attempts were directed to the electrolysis by alter-
nating currents. He developed acid-resistant diaphragms (1900) and succeeded in
the electrolytic production of chromium (1902). He could demonstrate that minor
deviations from stoichometric compositions of metal oxides enhance the electric
conductivity considerably. He published his Lehrbuch der Elektrochemie in 1922.
Further information can be found at [ 283 , 284 ].
Jeremias Siegismund Karl Friedrich (Fritz) F örster [born 22 February 1866,
Grünberg/Silesia (now Zielona Góra, Poland); died 14 September 1931, Dresden].
Förster was interested in chemistry since his childhood. While experimenting,
he lost his left eye. He studied at the Königlich Technische Hochschule (Royal