Simon, Eduard

In 1839, Eduard Simon, an apothecary in Berlin, distilled storax resin obtained from the Tree of Turkey , (liquid ambar orientalis) with a sodium carbonate solution and obtained an oil which he analysed and named styrol (what we now call styrene) [1]. He recorded the following observation that with old oil the residue which cannot be vaporised without decomposition is greater than with fresh oil, undoubtedly due to a steady conversion of the oil by air, light and heat to a rubberlike substance . Simon believed he had oxidised the material and called the product styrol oxide. Later, when he realised that it contained no oxygen, the product became known as metastyrol. This puzzled the early chemists as there was no change in empirical formula despite the very pronounced alteration in chemical and physical properties. Unknowingly, this was the first recorded instance of polymerization. 

Louis de Rouvroy, due de Saint-Simon, Memoires, ed. Yves Coirault, 8 vols. (Paris Gallimard, 1983-88), 4 459-66 Aus der Briefe der Herzogin Elisabeth Charlotte von Orleans an die Kurfurstin Sophie von Hannover, ed. Eduard Bodemann, 2 vols. (Hannover, 1891), 2 302-303, 307. 

Polystyrene. While polystyrene was probably first formed by German apothecary Eduard Simon in 1839, it was almost 100 years later, in 1930, that the German chemical company I. G. Fraben placed polystyrene on the market. Polystyrene-molded parts became common place by 1935. Apphcations of polyst5Tene include loose-fill packaging peanuts, shape-molded packaging, and disposable utensils. 

The history of polystyrene dates to 1839 when a German apothecary (druggist) named Eduard Simon discovered styrene in petroleum. Later scientists attempted to incorporate... 

German druggist Eduard Simon discovers styrene in petroleum. 

Eduard Simon established that when styrene was left to stand for a period of time, it changed into a viscous fluid, which eventually became solid he erroneously took polystyrene to be an oxidation product of styrene. In 1848, at the Royal College of Chemistry in London, August Wilhelm v. Hofmann and John Blythe established that this product had the same composition as styrene they called the polymer mety-styrene . In 1920, Hermann Staudinger determined the exact nature of the styrene polymer and named it polystyrene. 

Person to discover Eduard Simon Herman F. Mark Munters, C G and Tandberg JG Mark, H Whiff, C, German Patent, 550 055,1 G Farben, 1929 Munters, C G and Tandberg J G, US Patent 2,023,204,1935. 

Details Eduard Simon distilled the resin of the Turkish sweetgum tree (Uquidambarorientalis) and obtained an oily substance, a monomer, which he named styrol. Several days later styrol had thickened, presumably from oxidation, into a jelly The first commercial production of polystyrene was by BASF in 1931 patent for manufacture was obtained by Mark and WUIff in 1929 Munters and Tandberg obtained patent for food polystyrene ... 

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