Homberg, Willem

According to Thomas Thomson (11), Willem Homberg purchased Kunchefs secret of making phosphorus by giving in exchange the in-... 

Boric acid was first prepared in 1702 by Willem Homberg. He was bom on January 8, 1652, at Batavia on the island of Java. When his father left the service of the Dutch East India Company, the family settled in Amsterdam, where young Wilhelm (or Willem) had a much better opportunity to study than in the torrid climate of the East Indies. After studying law at Jena and Leipzig, he was admitted to the bar in Magdeburg in 1674. Soon becoming more interested in the laws of nature than in those devised by man, he began to devote much time to botany, astronomy, and mechanics. 

Jaeger, F. M, Naschrift Willem Homberg, Chem. Weekbl., 15, 602-5... 

Willem Homberg prepares sedative salt (boric acid). 

Willem Homberg was born on the island of Java, where his father worked for the Dutch East India Company. Back in Amsterdam, Willem had the possibility of studying in different European seats of learning. In Wiirtenberg he became a doctor of medicine. He worked with Robert Boyle in England, and went to see mines in Germany and Sweden. At the end of his life, he lived in Paris and died there in 1715. 

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