Anschutz, Richard

Anschutz Richard Anschutz, August Kekuli, vol. 1, Leben und Wirken, and vol. 2, Ahhandlungen, Berichte, Kritiken, Artikel, Reden (Berlin Verlag Chemie, 1929)... 

Anschutz, Richard. "Life and Chemical Work of Archibald Scott Couper." Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 29 (1909) 193-273. 

It may also have been unfortunate for Couper that he was an excellent experimentalist, because his greater skill in the laboratory unwittingly gave ammunition to his opponents. In his early work that culminated in stmctural theory, he reported the formation of a cyclic compound from the reaction between phosphoms pentachloride and salicylic acid (57). Both Kekule (56) and Kolbe (57) attempted to reproduce his reaction without success, and used their failure to duplicate his results to cast doubt on his other claims. It was not until a better experimentalist, Richard Anschutz, repeated Couper s work exactly as he had set out in his paper that his skill as an experimentalist was confirmed, and his... 

There is no question but that Couper was a gifted chemist, in both the experimental and the theoretical realms. In his salicylic acid paper, he reported the synthesis of salicyl trichlorophosphate, for whose formula he suggested another ring structure within the molecule— not, however, in the aromatic nucleus, but in the carboxyl/phosphate portion of the molecule. Several chemists, including Kekule, tried to reproduce this experimental result, without success. And yet Couper s experiment was indeed correct, as Kekule s student Richard Anschutz demonstrated in 1885 one simply had to follow to the letter Couper s prescriptions as to reaction conditions. By this time Couper had fallen into utter obscurity no reference work carried his name, and no one knew even so much as his nationality. 

Richard Anschutz (Darmstadt lo March 1852-8 January 1937) was professor in Bonn (1898-1922). He published much work in organic chemistry and edited publications by Couper and Loschmidt for Ostwald s Klassiker, His work on Kekule August Kekule, 2 vols., Berlin, 1929) has often been quoted in this volume. He synthesised anthracene (see p. 562), hydroxycou-marins, and hexaphenylethane. Anschutz was a warm admirer of Couper, and it is said that when he lectured to British prisoners of war in World War I, and was censured by the German authorities, he excused himself by saying There might be another Couper among them. He was made honorary Ll.D. of Aberdeen in 1906. 

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