Max Speter (1 April 1883 – 30 June 1942) was a Jewish-German chemist and science historian.

Biography

Max Speter was born in Beszterce,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(now Bistrița,

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

), the youngest of seven children, to his Jewish parents Johann Speter and Anna Dollberg. He grew up in Bistrița and graduated in 1900 from the city's German Gymnasium. Speter began studying engineering at the

Budapest University of Technology and Economics The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is a public research university located in Budapest, Hungary. It is the most significant university of technology in the country and is considered ...

. He then moved to

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

, and completed his studies in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

where he received his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. After graduating he worked with

Oskar von Miller Oskar Franz Xaver Miller, since 1875 von Miller (7 May 1855 – 9 April 1934), was a German engineer and founder of the Deutsches Museum, a large museum of technology and science in Munich. Biography Born in Munich into an Upper Bavarian family ...

, founder of the

Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science museum, science and technology museum, technology, with a ...

, as a member of the museum's founding team. For a while he worked in the chemical industry in Germany and Hungary. Then he was hired as a researcher at the

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, where he also started his Ph.D. thesis. His doctoral advisors were

Hans Heinrich Landolt Hans Heinrich Landolt (5 December 1831 – 15 March 1910) was a Swiss chemist who discovered iodine clock reaction. He is also one of the founders of Landolt–Börnstein database. He tested law of mass conservation which was given by Lavoisier. ...

and

Walther Nernst Walther Hermann Nernst (; 25 June 1864 – 18 November 1941) was a German physical chemist known for his work in thermodynamics, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and solid-state physics. His formulation of the Nernst heat theorem helped ...

, who later won the 1920 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Speter acquired his doctorate in 1910.

Under the Nazi regime

From 1934, following the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

takeover, it became more and more difficult for Speter to research and publish due to his Jewish ancestry. In 1937 the German radio cancelled a planned broadcast of his public lecture. From 1939 and on he was banned completely from publishing in Germany. Speter committed suicide on 30 June 1942.

Professional activities

Research and industrial development

While working as a researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin, Speter developed methods for extracting

Thorium Thorium is a chemical element; it has symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is a weakly radioactive light silver metal which tarnishes olive grey when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft, malleable, and ha ...

and

Scandium Scandium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Sc and atomic number 21. It is a silvery-white metallic d-block, d-block element. Historically, it has been classified as a rare-earth element, together with yttrium and the lantha ...

. In 1911 and 1912 he registered patents on these methods. In the same years he operated a laboratory for producing

Tungsten Tungsten (also called wolfram) is a chemical element; it has symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively in compounds with other elements. It was identified as a distinct element in 1781 and first ...

paste, then used in the manufacture of

Incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, also known as an incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe, is an electric light that produces illumination by Joule heating a #Filament, filament until it incandescence, glows. The filament is enclosed in a ...

filaments. In 1923 and 1925 he registered patents for a disinfecting lamp based on acetaldehyde. In 1927 and 1928 he studied the electrostatic properties of

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

, plastic materials and synthetic textiles. The results of these studies were published in a series of articles in several professional journals.

The history of chemistry

In addition to his own activity as a chemist, Speter had a great interest in the study of the history of chemistry. The title of his doctoral dissertation, publish 1910, was "

Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794),
CNRS (

Lavoisier und seine Vorläufer. Eine historisch-kritische Studie;Max Speter; Ferdinand. Enke, Stuttgart; 1910 Later he studied various areas of chemistry, but his main interests were in the histories of sugar and superphosphate. The history of sugar production. Speter studied the work of the two people who are considered the founding fathers of the production of sugar from

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

Andreas Sigismund Marggraf Andreas Sigismund Marggraf (; 3 March 1709 – 7 August 1782) was a German chemist from Berlin, then capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and a pioneer of analytical chemistry. He isolated zinc in 1746 by heating calamine and carbon. Though ...

and

Franz Karl Achard Franz Karl Achard (28 April 1753 – 20 April 1821) was a German (Prussian) chemist, geoscientist, physicist, and biologist. His principal discovery was the production of sugar from sugar beets. Life and work Achard was born in Berlin, the so ...

. He published a comprehensive bibliography of Franz Karl Achard`s contributions, including more than 200 references, in the journal of the German sugar industry ("Die deutsche Zuckerindustrie"). He also published an illustrated account of Achard`s experiments in beet sugar production. Speter also studied other, less successful, efforts to produce sugar. The famous

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 ...

prepared sugar from 7 different species of maple and recommended extensive planting of maples in hope of making Germany self-sufficient in this respect. Another German, Ludwig Hofmann, tried to produce sugar from pumpkin. Speter also studied and wrote about some more esoteric historic experiments with sugar. In 1932 he described the experiments with sugar

Triboluminescence Triboluminescence is a phenomenon in which light is generated when a material is mechanically pulled apart, ripped, scratched, crushed, or rubbed (see tribology). The phenomenon is not fully understood but appears in most cases to be caused by the ...

made by

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

and

Otto von Guericke Otto von Guericke ( , , ; spelled Gericke until 1666; – ) was a German scientist, inventor, mathematician and physicist. His pioneering scientific work, the development of experimental methods and repeatable demonstrations on the physics of ...

. In another publication, he described an anonymous German author who, in 1780, prepared

Leyden jar A Leyden jar (or Leiden jar, or archaically, Kleistian jar) is an electrical component that stores a high-voltage electric charge (from an external source) between electrical conductors on the inside and outside of a glass jar. It typically co ...

s where melted sugar served as an insulator. The history of superphosphate. In his study of the history of Superphosphate Speter collected information, including patents and notes, about 16 scientists and industrialists who contributed to the research and manufacture of the fertilizer. They include: Johann Tholde, a school principal from

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

;

Johan Gottlieb Gahn Johan Gottlieb Gahn (19 August 1745 – 8 December 1818) was a Swedish chemist and metallurgist who isolated manganese in 1774. Gahn studied in Uppsala from 1762 to 1770 and became acquainted with chemists Torbern Bergman and Carl Wilhelm Schee ...

;

Carl Wilhelm Scheele Carl Wilhelm Scheele (, ; 9 December 1742 – 21 May 1786) was a Swedish Pomerania, German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist. Scheele discovered oxygen (although Joseph Priestley published his findings first), and identified the elements molybd ...

;

Anders Gustaf Ekeberg Anders Gustaf Ekeberg (16 January 1767 in Stockholm, Sweden – 11 February 1813 in Uppsala, Sweden) was a Swedish analytical chemist who discovered tantalum in 1802. - subscription required He was notably deaf. Education Anders Gustav Ekeberg w ...

; A. Bergsteen;

Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin Louis Nicolas Vauquelin FRS(For) HFRSE (; 16 May 1763 – 14 November 1829) was a French pharmacist and chemist. He was the discoverer of chromium and beryllium. Early life Vauquelin was born at Saint-André-d'Hébertot in Normandy, France, th ...

; Antoine Fourcroy; George Pearson; Sir

Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several Chemical element, e ...

; S. F. Hernbstädt;

; Sir

John Bennet Lawes Sir John Bennet Lawes, 1st Baronet, FRS (28 December 1814 – 31 August 1900) was an English entrepreneur and agricultural scientist. He founded an experimental farm at his home at Rothamsted Manor that eventually became Rothamsted Research, ...

and Sir

James Murray (physician) Sir James Murray (1788–1871) was an Irish physician, whose research into digestion led to his discovery of the stomach aid Milk of Magnesia in 1809. He later studied in electrotherapy and led the research into the causes of cholera and other e ...

. The results of his studies were published in "Super-Phosphate", a monthly journal of the International Superphosphate Manufacturers' Association. The papers included detailed bibliographies and biographical notes. The history of the match. As a by-product of his interest in the history of superphosphate he became interested in another Phosphorus product, the

match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

, and its predecessor the

tinderbox A tinderbox, or patch box, is a container made of wood or metal containing flint, firesteel, and tinder (typically charcloth, but possibly a small quantity of dry, finely divided fibrous matter such as hemp), used together to help kindle a fi ...

. In the "Deutschen Zündwaren-Zeitung", the journal of the German match industry, he published an article about the matches of John Walker called "Congreves" or "friction lights". In the same journal he published an illustrated history of matches based on a translation from Hungarian. He also republished an early 19th-century account about tinderboxes, by Friedrich Hermbstädt. Other topics in the history of chemistry. Speter studied a variety of other topics in the history of chemistry, among them: plastic materials,

explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

, materials for the photographic industry,

Scientific instrument A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research. History Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, an ...

s and life-saving equipment. The results of his studies were published in German and Austrian scientific and industrial journals. Translations also were printed in publications in the United States, The Netherlands and Hungary.

Popular science

Beside his scientific publications Speter was an active science popularizer and communicator. As a member of the Deutsches Museum's founding team, he arranged the chemical, physical, and mineralogical exhibits. After leaving this position, he remained an advisor to the museum, consulting about new exhibits. Later on, he used to publish popular humorous and illustrated versions of his works in newspapers and popular science magazines. Between 1924 and 1926 he gave a series of radio lectures.

References

External links

Bibliography of books and articles by Max Speter in the catalog of the German national library
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Speter, Max History of chemistry Historians of science Jewish historians Jewish chemists 20th-century German chemists People from Bistrița 1883 births German male non-fiction writers 20th-century German historians 1942 suicides 1942 deaths Suicides by Jews during the Holocaust German Jews who died in the Holocaust Suicides in Germany