Carl Schorlemmer FRS (30 September 1834 – 27 June 1892) was a German chemist who did research on hydrocarbons and contributed to the study of the history of chemistry.

Early life and education

Schorlemmer was born in 1834, the son of a

joiner A joiner is an artisan and tradesperson who builds things by joining pieces of wood, particularly lighter and more ornamental work than that done by a carpenter, including furniture and the "fittings" of a house, ship, etc. Joiners may work in ...

in Darmstadt. He was able to visit

Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

and later - against the will of his poor father-

trade school A vocational school is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocational education or technical skills required to complete the tasks ...

. Schorlemmer started his training to become a pharmacist in 1853 in

Groß-Umstadt Groß-Umstadt is a town in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hesse in Germany. It is near by Darmstadt and Frankfurt on the northern border of mountain range Odenwald and is on the south-eastern edge of Rhin ...

. During his training he made own chemical experiments in the laboratory and was interested in

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

and

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

. After two and a half years he passed his exam, became an assistant pharmacist and worked in the Schwanen pharmacy in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. Having attended some lectures of

Robert Wilhelm 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 ...

, he studied pharmacy and chemistry in

and in

Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

(where he attended lectures of Heinrich Will and Hermann Kopp, a historian of chemistry). He later became demonstrator at

Owens College Owens may refer to: Places in the United States * Owens Station, Delaware * Owens Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota * Owens, Missouri * Owens, Ohio * Owens, Virginia People * Owens (surname), including a list of people with the name * Ow ...

in Manchester with

Henry Enfield Roscoe Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe (7 January 1833 – 18 December 1915) was a British chemist. He is particularly noted for early work on vanadium, photochemical studies, and his assistance in creating Oxo (food), in its earlier liquid form. Life a ...

Professorship

From 1874 on, Schorlemmer was professor of organic chemistry in Manchester. Schorlemmer became a member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in the UK in 1871. In 1878, he was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

Research

* research on paraffin hydrocarbons * he proved, that "ethane" and "ethyl hydride" are identical. * works on Aurin, rosaniline, suberone and

safranin Safranin (Safranin O or basic red 2) is a biological stain used in histology and cytology. Safranin is used as a counterstain in some staining protocols, colouring cell nuclei red. This is the classic counterstain in both Gram stains and endos ...

. * a method to convert a secondary alcohol into a primary alcohol. * research on historical aspects of chemistry

Writings

Schorlemmer wrote several books about organic chemistry, the most important one being ''A Treatise on Chemistry'' (1874), which he co-authored with Henry Roscoe. Schorlemmer is considered to have made an essential contribution to the history of chemistry as an academic field in his later works, culminating in his book ''The Rise and Development of Organic Chemistry''. Towards the end of his life, Schorlemmer began to write a book about the history of chemistry from antiquity to the 17th century. He died before finishing his work, so it was never published, the manuscript covers about 1,100 pages and is stored in

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a Victorian era, late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to t ...

Connections with Marx and Engels

Schorlemmer was a friend of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' At Schorlmmer's death, Engels published an obituary in ''

Vorwärts ''Vorwärts'' (, "Forward") is a newspaper published by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Founded in 1876, it was the central organ of the SPD for many decades. Following the party's Halle Congress (1891), it was published daily as ...

'', the central organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Engels said that Schorlemmer spent his holidays regularly in London with Marx and Engels when he did not visit Germany. Engels also claimed in his obituary that Schorlemmer was open about his allegiance to the Communist cause, and that Schorlemmer was unusual in that he held the German philosopher Hegel in high regard at a time when the latter was "much despised". Engels added that, "What we know today about paraffins, we owe mainly to Schorlemmer... Thus he became one the joint founders of today's scientific organic chemistry." For this connection with Marx and Engels, Schorlemmer is sometimes referred to as the "red" chemist.*

Death

Towards the end of his life, his health got worse, he died due to a lung disease at his house in Manchester on 27.June 1892. He was unmarried.

Selected writings

''A Manual of Chemistry of the Carbon Compounds; or, Organic Chemistry''
(1874)
''A Treatise on Chemistry''
(1877) - with Henry Roscoe
''Rise and Development of Organic Chemistry''
(1879)

References

* Dr. O. Krätz: ''Chemie in unserer Zeit'' / 14/ Year: 1980 Nr. 3 A27 * J. R. Partington: ''A History of Chemistry''; vol. 4. London: Macmillan & Co Ltd.; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1964, pp. 774+775 * Rolf Gelius: "Carl Schorlemmer als Wissenschaftshistoriker: Zur Kenntnis seines unvollendeten Manuskripts, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Chemie"/ intern.Zs.f.Gesch.u.Ethik der Naturwiss., Techn. u. Med.4/Birkhäuser Verlag 1996 /65-81 {{DEFAULTSORT:Schorlemmer, Carl 1834 births 1892 deaths Scientists from Darmstadt 19th-century German chemists 19th-century British chemists Organic chemists Fellows of the Royal Society