Julius Adolph Stöckhardt (4 January 1809 – 1 June 1886) was a German agricultural chemist. He is mostly recognized for his work on fertilizers, fume damage of plants and his book ''Die Schule der Chemie'' (''School of Chemistry''), which was translated into 14 languages. His 500 lectures and over 500 publications helped to establish agricultural chemistry in Germany.

Life

Stöckhardt was born in Röhrsdorf near

Meißen Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrech ...

on 4 January 1809 as son of a preacher. He was apprentice in a pharmacy from 1824 to 1828, studied at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

, and obtained his Ph.D. from the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

in 1837. He worked at a mineral water factory from 1835 till he received a position at the Königlichen Gewerbeschule in Chemnitz (Royal Saxon Industrial School) in 1838. In 1846 he became a member of Dresden's scientific society ISIS, led by Ludwig Reichenbach. Stöckhardt-Bau Tharandt

From 1847 to 1883, Stöckhardt worked at the Königliche Forstakademie (

Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry The Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry (German: ''Königliche-Sächsische Forstakademie'') in Tharandt, Saxony, near Dresden, was founded by silviculturist Heinrich Cotta in 1811. Established in conjunction with the school, and later integrated wit ...

) in

Tharandt Tharandt () is a municipality in Saxony, Germany, situated on the Weißeritz, 9 miles southwest of Dresden. It has a Protestant Church and the oldest academy of forestry in Germany, founded as the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry by Heinrich Cott ...

, where a building was named after him. In 1866, he was elected Fellow of the Leopoldina. He died in Tharandt on 1 June 1886 three years after he retired from the Forstakademie. One of his sons, Carl Georg Stöckhardt, emigrated to the United States and taught

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

at the

Concordia Seminary Concordia Seminary is a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Lutheran seminary in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, deaconesses, Missionary, missionaries, chaplains, and church leaders for the Lutheran Chur ...

of the Lutheran Church

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

.Christian Cyclopedia

Work

After the book of Justus von Liebig, ''Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology'' was published in 1840, Stöckhardt recognized the importance of fertilization for farmers and invested most of his time in popularizing scientific knowledge. In 1843 he started to give chemical lectures for farmers. In 1850 he and Hugo Schober started to publish the ''Zeitschrift für deutsche Landwirthe'' (Journal for German farmers). One year later, Germany's first large

agricultural experiment station An agricultural experiment station (AES) or agricultural research station (ARS) is a scientific research center that investigates difficulties and potential improvements to food production and agribusiness. Experiment station scientists work with f ...

opened in Leipzig-Möckern, initiated by Stöckhardt. His research on fertilizers was influenced by the work of Liebig, but Stöckhardt included nitrogen compounds into his fertilizers. Liebig denied the need to include nitrogen because it was available as gas from air. This conflict escalated into an academic fight between him and the ''nitrogen advocates'' which also ended the friendship between Stöckhardt and Liebig. Eventually, nitrogen containing fertilizers became a great success. His research in fume damage on plants especially by industrial exhaust was ground breaking. He fumigated plants with known amount of several chemical compounds, for example sulfur dioxide, to detect the minimal concentration at which damages occurs. A ''Commission for the detection of the damage caused by smelters'' was introduced and the state parliament of Saxony also dealt with damage caused by smelters after his results were published.

References

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Publications

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stockhardt, Julius Adolph 1809 births 1886 deaths 19th-century German chemists Leipzig University alumni Members of the Second Chamber of the Diet of the Kingdom of Saxony Academic staff of the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry People from Meissen (district)