Friedrich Konrad Beilstein

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Friedrich Konrad Beilstein
Beilstein in 1892
Born	February 17, 1838(1838-02-17) St. Petersburg, Russia
Died	October 18, 1906 (aged 68)
Education	University of Heidelberg
Known for	Beilstein database Beilstein test

Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (17 February 1838 – 18 October 1906), Russian name "Бейльштейн, Фёдор Фёдорович", was a chemist and founder of the famous Handbuch der organischen Chemie (Handbook of Organic Chemistry). The first edition of this work, published in 1881, covered 1,500 compounds in 2,200 pages. This handbook is now known as the Beilstein database.

[edit] Life

Friedrich Konrad Beilstein was born to family with a German background in St. Petersburg, Russia. He received his early education in German-speaking schools.

At the age of fifteen, Beilstein began studying at University of Heidelberg under Robert Bunsen. After two years, Beilstein moved to the University of Munich, where Justus Liebig was professor for organic chemistry, but he later returned to Heidelberg. For his Ph.D., Beilstein joined Friedrich Wöhler at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, receiving his doctorate two days before his twentieth birthday.

Beilstein became a lecturer at the University of Göttingen, and later a professor extraordinarius there, in 1865. He left Göttingen in 1866 and became a professor in Saint Petersburg at the Imperial Technical Institute.

In 1881, Beilstein was elected to the Russia Academy of Sciences. Leicester points out that Beilstein had favoured the election of Mendeleev, but that there were certain scientists who opposed the latter's candidacy. Mendeleev was never elected a member.^[1]

Beilstein also developed the Beilstein test for the detection of halogens.

[edit] References

^ Leicester, Henry M. (1948). "Mendeleev and the Russian Academy of Sciences". Journal of Chemical Education 25: 439 – 444.

[edit] For further reading

Huntress, Ernest H. (1938). "1938: The One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (1838 – 1906)". Journal of Chemical Education 15: 303 – 309.