Johann Rudolf Glauber

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Johann Rudolf Glauber (March 10? 1604– March 16, 1670), a German-Dutch alchemist and chemist.

Born in Karlstadt am Main, he received no formal education and later he moved to the Netherlands and settled in Amsterdam (1655).

He might be regarded as a forerunner of contemporary chemists. His work and experiments resulted in discoveries of several analytic methods and he was the first to produce hydrochloric acid. Among other chemical compounds Glauber discovered sodium sulfate, which was named after him ("Glauber's salt").

The method of the manufacture of nitric acid was established by Glauber, in 1648. This method includes the heating of potassium nitrate with concentrated sulphuric acid .