Fittig, Rudolf

Fittig, Rudolf. "Vorlaufige Mittheilung tiber die Oxydationsproducte des Mesi-tylens." Zeitschrift fiir Chemie 9 (1866) 518-21. 

Ludwig Wolff (1857-19191 was born in N6ustQdt/H8rdt, Germs ny, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Strasbourg working with Rudolf Fittig. He was professor of chemistry at the University of Jena. 

Rudolf Fittig, 1835-1910. Professor of organic chemistry at Tubingen and Strasbourg. He discovered the lactones, and devised a general method for synthesizing homologs of benzene. With Erdmann he established the constitution of phenan-threne, and with Remsen he proved the constitution of the alkaloid, piperme. Sir William Ramsay was one of his students. 

Protocatechualdehyde (3,4-dihydroxybenzfildehyde). The preparation of this aldehyde from piperonal was accomplished for the first time in 1871 at Tiibingen by Rudolf Fittig, age 36, and his American co-worker Ira Remsen, age 25. In earlier work on the alkaloid piperine and its cleavage products piperic acid and piperidine, Fittig had isolated two products of oxidation of piperic acid, piperonal and piperonylic acid, now known to be constituted as formulated. The aldehyde bore... 

Findig" means resourceful or inventive it was surely intended as a parody of Rudolf Fittig s name. "Tautomerism" had been defined and named by Conrad Laar in 1885, and Lothar Meyer had proposed a "centric" benzene model in 1872 probably both theories were being spoofed here. 

---