Walthère Victor Spring (6 March 1848 – 17 July 1911) was a Belgian experimental chemist and a professor at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium founded in 1817 and based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French (language), French. History The university was foun ...

who contributed to ideas on

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

in the atmosphere and the

greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect occurs when greenhouse gases in a planet's atmosphere insulate the planet from losing heat to space, raising its surface temperature. Surface heating can happen from an internal heat source (as in the case of Jupiter) or ...

. As a physical chemist he demonstrated the formation of certain compounds such as metal sulphides under high pressure conditions. He also took an interest in the study of the

Tyndall effect The Tyndall effect is light scattering by particles in a colloid such as a very fine suspension (a sol). Also known as Tyndall scattering, it is similar to Rayleigh scattering, in that the intensity of the scattered light is inversely propor ...

and examined the cause of the colour of the sky and water.

Life

Spring was born in

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

, to physician and professor of medicine,

Antoine Frédéric Spring Antoine Frédéric Spring (8 April 1814 in Gerolsbach, Bavaria – 17 January 1872) was a German-born, Belgian physician and botanist. He studied botany and medicine at the University of Munich, obtaining his PhD in 1835 and his medical doctorate ...

who was of Bavarian ancestry. He experimented in physics and chemistry but studied classical languages and humanities at the Athenaeum. He failed the examination to enter university but took an interest in practical work. He worked for a while with an arms manufacturer in Liège but was encouraged by the chemist Jean Stas to study and he joined the Mining School from where he received a diploma in 1871. He then went to Bonn to study under

August Kekulé Friedrich August Kekulé, later Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz ( , ; 7 September 1829 – 13 July 1896), was a German organic chemist. From the 1850s until his death, Kekulé was one of the most prominent chemists in Europe, especially ...

and

Rudolf Clausius Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (; 2 January 1822 – 24 August 1888) was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founding fathers of the science of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle ...

. He joined the

in 1876 as a lecturer in

mathematical physics Mathematical physics is the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the de ...

but taught

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

soon after. He was a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium from 1877 and became its president in 1899. In 1886 he gave a presentation at the academy on variability of carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere and noted that the city of Liège had a higher concentration than the surrounding countryside, possibly due to the use of coal for heating homes and the slow burning of ''grisou'' in the Saint-Jacques district which produced

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

. Along with he examined weather measurements and noted that the air cooled less slowly due to the water vapour and carbon dioxide.

Honor and legacy

Cape Walthère Spring in the Antarctic was named after him by the de Gerlache expedition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spring, Walthère Victor 1848 births 1911 deaths Belgian chemists University of Liège alumni