Adolph Frank (January 20, 1834 – May 30, 1916) was a German-

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

chemist, engineer, and businessman. He is best known for having discovered uses of

potash Potash ( ) includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water- soluble form.

and creating the industry. Adolph Frank was born in the town of Klötze (now in

Altmarkkreis Salzwedel Altmarkkreis Salzwedel is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts Gifhorn, Uelzen, Lüchow-Dannenberg in Lower Saxony, and the districts of Stendal and Börde (district). History Th ...

in Altmark,

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

. He was the son of a Jewish merchant, who—like Frank's grandfather—ran a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

. Frank studied the secondary school in Strelitz, now part of

Neustrelitz Neustrelitz (; ) is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 until 1918 it was the capital o ...

, and then Jacobsohn School in

Seesen Seesen () is a town and municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range, approx. west of Goslar. History The Saxon settlement of ''Sehusa'' was first mentio ...

. Then, he took up an apprenticeship as an

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is an Early Modern English, archaic English term for a medicine, medical professional who formulates and dispenses ''materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons and patients. The modern terms ''pharmacist'' and, in Brit ...

in Osterburg, because he was interested in chemistry. From 1855 to 1857 he studied

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

and

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

at the university in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In the same year he passed the examination to become an apothecary with a grade of 1 (the best possible grade in the German school system). In 1861 and 1862, he received his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in chemistry from the university in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

with a work about the production of

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

. Before this, in 1858, he had already received his first

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

while working for a sugar beet factory in Staßfurt. He received this patent for having discovered a way to clean beet juice with

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

soaps. The emphasis of his work was on the use of potash as an artificial fertilizer. After 1860, he discovered and developed a deposit near Staßfurt and Leopoldshall, thus founding the industry. In 1861, he gained the patent on fertilizer on the basis of

potassium chloride Potassium chloride (KCl, or potassium salt) is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. It is odorless and has a white or colorless vitreous crystal appearance. The solid dissolves readily in water, and its solutions have a sa ...

. A further invention of his was a method for the extraction of

bromine Bromine is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Br and atomic number 35. It is a volatile red-brown liquid at room temperature that evaporates readily to form a similarly coloured vapour. Its properties are intermediate between th ...

from salt mines. His work in the field of fertilizers led to the use of the fertilizer discovered by Sidney Gilchrist Thomas ( or ). Together with the German- Polish chemist Nikodem Caro, he developed the Frank-Caro process of extracting

calcium cyanamide Calcium cyanamide, also known as Calcium carbondiamide, Calcium cyan-2°-amide or Calcium cyanonitride is the inorganic compound with the formula CaCN2. It is the calcium salt of the cyanamide () anion. This chemical is used as fertilizer and is c ...

in 1899, which was the foundation of the nitrogen and calcium cyanamide fertilizer industry. In the same year those two and a few other businessmen founded ''Cyanidgesellschaft mbH'', which would later become ''Bayrischen Stickstoff-Werke AG (BStW)'' in Trostberg. The brown coloring of bottles, which is supposed to protect the content of the bottle from the effects of light, can also be attributed to him. He also researched the extraction of

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

for

blimp A non-rigid airship, commonly called a blimp (Help:IPA/English, /blɪmp/), is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid airship, semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on th ...

together with

Carl von Linde Carl Paul Gottfried von Linde (11 June 1842 – 16 November 1934) was a German scientist, engineer, and businessman. He discovered the refrigeration cycle and invented the first industrial-scale air separation and gas liquefaction processes, ...

. He was awarded the

John Scott Medal John Scott Award, created in 1816 as the John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium, is presented to men and women whose inventions improved the "comfort, welfare, and happiness of human kind" in a significant way. "...the John Scott Medal Fund, establish ...

The Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

in 1893.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frank, Adolph 1834 births 1916 deaths People from Altmarkkreis Salzwedel Scientists from the Province of Saxony 19th-century German Jews 19th-century German chemists 20th-century German chemists