Charles Anthony Goessmann (13 June 1827 – 1 September 1910), known in his native German as Karl Anton Gößmann, was a

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

agricultural and food

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

Biography

Education

Goessmann was born in

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He was educated at the gymnasium in

Fritzlar Fritzlar () is a small town (pop. 15,000) in the Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, Germany, north of Frankfurt, with a storied history. The town has a medieval center ringed by a wall with numerous watch towers. high ...

. After leaving the gymnasium, he became an apprentice pharmacist, and worked as an assistant pharmacist in several towns. He studied under

Friedrich Wöhler Friedrich Wöhler Royal Society of London, FRS(For) HonFRSE (; 31 July 180023 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in both organic chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements be ...

in the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, where he received the degree of

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1853. From 1852 until 1857, he was assistant in the chemical laboratory, and

privatdocent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

in the university. During this time, he studied the

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

United States

One of Goessmann's students at Göttingen was J. H. Eastwick, and in 1857 Goessmann came to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

as chemist and manager of the Eastwick Bros. sugar refinery in Philadelphia. He remained in that position until 1861. He was then chemist of the

Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capit ...

Salt Company, 1862 to 1869, engaged in the development of the salt industry in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. In 1862, he became

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of chemistry in the

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...

, but resigned that chair after two years.

Massachusetts

William S. Clark, president of the

Massachusetts Agricultural College The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the Flagship university, flagship campus of the Univer ...

, had also been one of Goessmann's students at Göttingen, and in 1869 Goessmann was appointed professor of chemistry at MAC. His research focused on the chemistry of crops and agricultural soils. In addition to his professorship, he was chemist to the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture in 1873, director of the

Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station The campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst is located nearly entirely in Amherst, Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, with a portion located in Hadley, Massachusetts, Hadley. Founded on 310 acres in rural Western Mas ...

in 1882, and analyst of the Massachusetts Board of Health in 1883. In 1873, he got a law passed for accurate fertilizer labeling. He was the first president of the American Association of Agricultural Chemists. On his retirement in 1907, he received a Carnegie pension. He died in

Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst () is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. Amherst has a council–manager form of government, and is considered a city under Massachusetts state law. Amherst is one of several Massach ...

, leaving a widow, Mary Anna Clara Kinny Goessmann, whom he had married on 22 October 1862, and five children. He has a building named after him at UMass Amherst, Goessmann Hall, which is the main chemical engineering building on campus.

Works

His contributions to chemical literature were numerous, and include, prior to his coming to the United States, papers on organic acids contributed to the ''Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie''. Goessmann's later papers include articles on sugar, salt, various foods, and special fertilization of plants. These appeared chiefly in the reports of the organizations with which he was connected. Selections from his works: * ''Chemical Composition of the Brines of Onondaga'' (1862) * ''Brines of Michigan'' (1862–63) * ''Best Mode of Manufacturing Coarse or Solar Salt from the Brines of Onondaga'' (1863) * ''Mineral Springs of Onondaga'' (1866) * ''Salt Deposits of Petite Anse, La.'' (1867) * ''Salt Resources of Goderich, Canada'' (1868) * ''Application of Caustic Magnesia for Sugar Refining'' (1864) * ''Manufacture of Sugar in Cuba'' (1865) *

Justus von Liebig Justus ''Freiherr'' von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a Germans, German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biology, biological chemistry; he is ...

's ''

Annalen der Chemie ''Justus Liebig's Annalen der Chemie'' (often cited as ''Liebigs Annalen'') was one of the oldest and historically most important journals in the field of organic chemistry worldwide. It was established in 1832 and edited by Justus von Liebig wi ...

'' (vols. lxxxvi., lxxxix., xc, xci., xciii., xciv., xcvii., xcviii., xcix., c, ci., civ.) *

Benjamin Silliman Benjamin Silliman (August 8, 1779 – November 24, 1864) was an American chemist and science education, science educator. He was one of the first American professors of science, the first science professor at Yale University, Yale, and the firs ...

's ''

American Journal of Science The ''American Journal of Science'' (''AJS'') is the United States of America's longest-running scientific journal, having been published continuously since its conception in 1818 by Professor Benjamin Silliman, who edited and financed it himself ...

'' (vols. xliv. and xlix.) * Reports of the New York Board of Agriculture * Reports of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture * ''Transactions of the New York Agricultural Society'' * Reports of the Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural College

Notes

References

''New York Times'' obituary
* * Albert Bernhardt Faust, ''The German Element in the United States'' (2 vols.), Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909, vol. 2, p. 54.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goessmann, Charles Anthony 1827 births 1910 deaths 19th-century American chemists University of Göttingen alumni American agriculturalists Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty Prussian emigrants to the United States University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Academics from Massachusetts