Bunsen, Robert

German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, the co-developer of the science of spectroscopy. 

Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, born in Gottingen, is often identified with the laboratory burner that bears his name. But to think of him only in relation to the Bunsen burner is to do him a disservice. Bunsen contributed widely to the development of many laboratory instruments, some of which helped to dramatically advance chemistry. His most important work was developing several techniques used to analyze chemical substances. 

Born into an academic family and well-versed in many disciplines, Bunsen made chemistry his field of choice. After receiving his doctorate at the age of nineteen, Brmsen went on a partially government-ftmded tour throughout Europe, where he met many chemists and engineers. Elis travels provided him with a network of contacts that he used throughout his career. Upon his return and after teaching at several universities, he settled into a professorship at the University of Heidelberg in 1852, where he stayed until his retirement in 1889. 

Bunsen was an avid experimentalist. He spent much of his time in the laboratory trying to discover the composition of chemical substances. His early research concerned the properties of arsenic and its compoimds. In particular, the chemical composition of a certain class of chemicals, called cacodyls, was unknown. His experiments showed that cacodyls were oxides of arsenic. But Bunsen s work with arsenic nearly cost him his life—he nearly killed himself through arsenic poisoning and lost the sight in one eye during his experiments with cacodyls. 

As his research advanced to the studies of gases and alkali metals, Bunsen recognized the importance of developing new methods to analyze and identify chemical substances. The importance of quantitative analysis was realized in the late eighteenth century. Chemists needed to probe further into a substance s composition in order to help explain the physical world. Bunsen recognized this need and worked to develop new instruments for this purpose. For example, he invented new types of galvanic and carbon-zinc electrochemical cells, or batteries, to isolate barium and sodium. He also constructed a new type of ice calorimeter that measured the volume, rather than the mass, of melted water. This allowed Brmsen to measure a metal s specific heat in order to find its atomic weight. 

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Bunsen, Robert W. von( 1811-1899). A Ger chemist noted for gasometric and photometric researches and for various inventions, such as burner, valve, cell, clamp funnel eudiometer. The first theory of the burning process of black powder was estabilished by him and simultaneously by a Russian chemist, L. Shishkoff. Bunsen lost the sight of his right eye due to the expln of cacodyl Cyanide, which he discovered together with other derivs of cacodyi... 

Berthollet, Claude-Louis Berzelius, Jons Jakob Black, Joseph Bohr, Niels Boltzmann, Ludwig Boyle, Robert Bragg, William Henry Bragg, William Lawrence Bronsted, Johannes Nicolaus Bunsen, Robert... 

Bucky periodic table, 101 Bunsenium, 33 Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm, 7 Butanol, 409... 

Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm. (1811-1899). Bom in Germany, Bunsen is remembered chiefly for his invention of the laboratory burner named after him. He engaged in a wide range of industrial and chemical research, including blast-furnace firing, electrolytic cells, separation of metals by electric current, spectroscopic techniques (with Kirchhoff), and production of light metals by electrical decomposition of their molten chlorides. He also discovered two elements, rubidium and cesium. 

Because of their metallic and alkaline properties, potassium and especially sodium are widely used in a variety of industrial processes both as metals and as compounds with various other elements. Lithium is rarely used, but does find application in lightweight alloys with magnesium. Rubidium and cesium are not commonly utilized industrially, except for some applications in electronics. Sodium and potassium are essential for life, sodium being the principal extracellular and potassium the major intracellular monovalent cations. The other alkali metals have no essential biological role, see ALSO Bunsen, Robert Cesium Davy, Humphry Francium Lithium Mendeleev, Dimitri Potassium Rubidium Sodium. 

Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm (1811-1899). (2000). In World of Chemistry, ed. Robyn V. Young. Detroit Gale Group. 

Both cesium and its compounds find practical nses. Cesium metal can be used as a getter to remove oxygen in phototubes. It is used in atomic clocks that are accurate to within five seconds per every three hxmdred years. (A second is defined as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a Cs-133 atom.) Csl and CsF are used in scintillation counters to monitor ionizing radiation. CsCl is used to create density gradients for the separation and purification of DNA via ultracentrifugation, see also Alkali Metals Bunsen, Robert. 

Even in the twenty-first century, although historians recognize that others, especially Meyer, should be given considerable credit for the discovery of the periodic properties of the elements, most textbooks credit only Mendeleev. SEE ALSO Bunsen, Robert Mendeleev, Dimitri Periodic Table. 

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