Edmund Oscar von Lippmann (9 January 1857 in Vienna – 24 September 1940 in Halle) was a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

and natural science historian.Lippmann, Edmund Oscar von (1857–1940), Chemiker
entry in ''Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950'', Vol. 5, 1971, p. 23
metadata
/ref> For his writings he was awarded a couple honoris causa doctorates from German universities, as well as the Leibniz Medal and the Sudhoff Medal.

Biography

He studied at the ETH Zurich and obtained a doctorate in 1878 under

Robert Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bu ...

at the

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...

. Lippmann ran large sugar refineries, in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

and later in Halle. During this phase of his career, he was granted the title of professor in the year 1901. In 1904, Lippmann founded the Berlin Sugar Museum, that's still open today. In 1878 Lippmann published his first edition of what would become a reference monograph on sugar chemistry in his time. The 3rd edition of this work, published in 1904 in two volumes was 2000 pages long and attempted to cover every aspect of what had become a vast field. A contemporary review in ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

'' noted that "With a modesty as charming as it is rare, he states in his preface: 'Completeness could not be attained in any direction', and yet this work is the most thorough of all works ever published on the chemistry of sugars", concluding that it was "rivaled by few, excelled by none". In 1890 Lippmann wrote an extremely detailed and influential history of sugar processing, ''Geschichte des Zuckers: seiner Darstellung und Verwendung, seit den ältesten Zeiten bis zum Beginn der Rübenzucker Fabrikation'' (History of sugar from the ancient times until the beginning of

beet sugar A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wit ...

production). To make it more accessible, he wrote an abridged version in 1894, which was also translated in French. In 1929 he published an updated version of his initial volume (824 pp). Although an influential work in its day, 21st century scholars found it to be misleading with respect to sugar production in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Lippmann also wrote extensively on the history of

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

, from the perspective of it being a forerunner of chemistry rather than more philosophical considerations. His three-volume ''Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie'' (Origin and propagation of Alchemy) is considered to contain the most detailed account of Greek alchemy, superseding earlier accounts of

Marcellin Berthelot Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (; 25 October 1827 – 18 March 1907) was a French chemist and Republican politician noted for the ThomsenBerthelot principle of thermochemistry. He synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substa ...

and C. Ruelle in accuracy. In 1920,

George Sarton George Alfred Leon Sarton (; 31 August 1884 – 22 March 1956) was a Belgian-born American chemist and historian. He is considered the founder of the discipline of the history of science as an independent field of study. His most influential work ...

wrote in his review of the first volume that it was a "truly monumental work, the greatest single addition to our knowledge of ancient chemistry (and also to our knowledge of human superstition) since the days of Kopp". In a review of the 1931 volume, Sarton warned that the portion dealing with Arabic materials was of lesser quality than the rest, particularly with respect to spelling of Arabic names.George Sarton, "Reviewed work(s): Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie by Edmund O. von Lippmann", ''Isis'' Vol. 16, No. 2 (Nov., 1931), pp. 462–463 Yet more recent reevaluations point to some deficiencies in citation style that make the text difficult to follow back to primary sources. More compact accounts have been written since.

Publications

* Die Zuckerarten und ihre Derivate (1878) * Die Chemie der Zuckerarten (1885, 1904) * Geschichte des Zuckers (1890, 1929) * Abhandlungen und Vorträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft (1906–1913) * Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie, (1919, 1931, 1954)Digital edition of Vol. 1&2
by the University and State Library Düsseldorf * Zeittafeln zur Geschichte der organischen Chemie (1921) * Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft und der Technik (1923) * Geschichte der Rübe als Kulturpflanze (1925) * Guntwin Bruhns (Hrsg.), Aus den Lebenserinnerungen von E. O. von Lippmann. In: Zuckerindustrie 107. bis 119. Jg., 1982–1994.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lippmann, Edmund Oscar von 1857 births 1940 deaths 20th-century German chemists 19th-century German Jews Jewish chemists Historians of science 19th-century German chemists Businesspeople in the sugar industry

Biography

Publications

References

Further reading

External links