Julius Bernhard Friedrich Adolph Wilbrand (22 August 1839 – 22 June 1906)''Familienarchiv Familie Wilbrand'' O13, Nr. 139, Hessisches Landesmuseum

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

. was a German

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 ...

who discovered

trinitrotoluene Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and help ...

, more commonly known as TNT. He was born in

Gießen Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the German state () 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 university students. Th ...

, Germay to Albertine Knapp and

Franz Joseph Julius Wilbrand Franz Joseph Julius Wilbrand (6 November 1811 in Giessen – 6 July 1894 in Giessen) was a German forensic physician. He was the father of chemist Julius Wilbrand (1839–1906) who discovered TNT and ophthalmologist Hermann Wilbrand (1851–193 ...

, a forensic physician. His brother,

Hermann Wilbrand Hermann Wilbrand (22 May 1851 – 17 September 1935) was a German ophthalmologist born in Giessen. Wilbrand was born in Giessen, Germany to Albertine Knapp and Franz Joseph Julius Wilbrand, a forensic physician.''Familienarchiv Familie Wil ...

, was an

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

. In 1863, Wilbrand discovered TNT while experimenting with new solutions for yellow dye. He obtained trinitrotoluene through the

nitration In organic chemistry, nitration is a general class of chemical processes for the introduction of a nitro group () into an organic compound. The term also is applied incorrectly to the different process of forming nitrate esters () between Alcohol ...

toluene Toluene (), also known as toluol (), is a substituted aromatic hydrocarbon with the chemical formula , often abbreviated as , where Ph stands for the phenyl group. It is a colorless, water Water is an inorganic compound with the c ...

. The compound's use as an

explosive 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 ex ...

was developed later.

References

1839 births 1906 deaths 19th-century German chemists People from Giessen University of Giessen alumni {{Germany-chemist-stub