Zeidler, Othmar

Muller must have been disappointed to learn that he was not the discoverer of DDT. Sixty-five years earlier and seventy miles down the Rhine River, an Austrian graduate student at the University of Strasbourg had synthesized the compound as part of his chemistry doctoral thesis. Although Othmar Zeidler described many of DDT s properties and developed the method used to make it commercially, he overlooked the compound s insecticidal powers. And because DDT was not used to make dyestuffs, it was soon forgotten. Thus, when Geigy took out the basic Swiss patent in March 1940, it was for DDT s use as an insecticide. 

Historical accident dictates that the chlorinated pesticides be considered first. It is well over a century since Othmar Zeidler first... 

DDT was first synthesized in 1874, for no purpose other than to exist, by the German Chemist Othmar Zeidler. In 1939, Dr. Paul Muller independently reproduced DDT in his lab, and after various experiments to determine it s possible uses, found that DDT quickly killed flies, aphids, mosquitoes, walking sticks and potato beetles. It was quickly patented in Switzerland in 1940, England in 1942 and the U.S. in 1943. In 1942 it was proven to kill body lice without any adverse effect on humans, and so it was used by every Allied trooper during World War II. DDT has been banned world-wide since 1972, but is still available in some third-world countries. 

Although the synthesis of l,l,l-trichloro-bis(4-chlorophenyl)-ethane (DDT) was achieved in 1874 by Othmar Zeidler, the compound elicited little interest until its potent toxic effect toward insects was discovered by P.H. Muller in 1939. The compound fulfilled only too well his criteria that a suitable compound should be chemically stable and persist for long periods of time. Although its use over the next few years was extensive and effective, DDT was to become the paradigm for an appreciation of the complex network of adverse effects brought about by the introduction of synthetic chemicals into the environment (Dunlap 1982). 

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DI-klor-oh-DI-fee-nul-TRI-klor-oh-eth-ane) is a colorless crystalline or white powdery material with a slight aromatic odor. It is far better known by its acronym, DDT. DDT was first synthesized in 1873 by German chemist Othmar Zeidler (1859-1911) as a project for his doctoral thesis. However, the compound was essentially ignored by other chemists and remained a laboratory curiosity for more than sixty years. 

Paul Hermann Muller was carrying out research on insecticides at Geigy Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland when he came across a compound that had first been made in 1874 by Othmar Zeidler, a young chemistry student. It had remarkable insecticidal properties at very low doses, and it was quickly conuner-cialized. Factories churned out about three million tons of DDT over the next thirty years. Muller was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for his contribution to human health. 

DDT is an abbreviation of the old name of the compound 4,4 -dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane. It was first prepared by Austrian chemist Othmar Zeidler (1859 -1911) in 1874, its insecticide potential was only discovered 60 years later in the systematic studies of Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Muller (1899-1965), who was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his insights. 

DDT is an acronym for dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane, but should be named more precisely as 2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-l,l,l-trichloroethane (see Fig. 16.1 for its structure). A German chemist, Othmar Zeidler synthesized this compound in 1874 while he was pursuing his PhD. And it had remained as that, a new synthesized compound, for a quite while. Carl Muller of J. R. Geigy (a Swiss Pharmaceutical company, now Chiba-Geigy) discovered in his pursuit of insecticides that the compound synthesized by O. Zeidler was extremely toxic to houseflies. Numerous tests were conducted, and the compound DDT was found to be an excellent insecticide. Besides it is cheap to make. This was the time when the World War II was raging. DDT was then used to control lice on soldiers on the front. In earlier wars, more soldiers died of typhus (bom by louse) than by bullets. The WWII was really the first war in history where more soldiers died actually from bullets than the louse-bom disease, thanks to DDT. DDT was then considered to be a savior to control many kinds of harmful pests. C. Muller was awarded a Nobel prize in 1948. 

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