Peter Woulfe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Woulfe (1727 – 1803) was an Irish chemist and mineralogist who first had the idea that wolframite might contain a previously undiscovered element.

In 1779, Woulfe reported the formation of a yellow dye when indigo was treated with nitric acid. Later it was discovered by others that he had formed picric acid, which eventually was used as the first synthetic dye, an explosive and an antiseptic treatment for burns.

He is also credited with inventing the Woulfe Bottle, a kind of wash bottle with two or three necks (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary 1913)