Robert Bunsen

Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (German:

[ˈbʊnzən]; 30 March 1811[a] – 16 August 1899) was a Robert Bunsen
German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of
heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and
rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav
Kirchhoff.[11] The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for
spectroscopy is named after Bunsen and Kirchhoff.

Bunsen also developed several gas-analytical methods,

was a pioneer in photochemistry, and did early work in
the field of organic arsenic chemistry. With his
laboratory assistant Peter Desaga, he developed the
Bunsen burner, an improvement on the laboratory
burners then in use. Born Robert Wilhelm Eberhard
Bunsen
30 March 1811
Early life and education Göttingen, Kingdom of
Westphalia, Confederation
Bunsen was born in Göttingen, Germany, in 1811, in of the Rhine
what is now the state of Lower Saxony in Germany. Died 16 August 1899 (aged 88)
Bunsen was the youngest of four sons of the University Heidelberg, Grand Duchy of
of Göttingen's chief librarian and professor of modern Baden, German Empire
philology, Christian Bunsen (1770–1837).[5] Alma mater University of Göttingen
(PhD)
After attending school in Holzminden, Bunsen
matriculated at Göttingen in 1828 and studied Known for Discoveries of caesium and
chemistry with Friedrich Stromeyer, mineralogy with rubidium
Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann, and mathematics Bunsen burner
with Carl Friedrich Gauss.[5] After obtaining a PhD in Bunsen cell
1831, Bunsen spent 1832 and 1833 traveling in France, Bunsen reaction
Germany, and Austria. During his journeys, Bunsen
Bunsen–Roscoe reciprocity
met the scientists Friedlieb Runge (who discovered
aniline and in 1819 isolated caffeine), Justus von Atomic emission
spectroscopy
Liebig in Giessen, and Eilhard Mitscherlich in Bonn.[5]
Cacodyl
Hydrothermal synthesis
Academic career Pneumatosis
Awards Copley Medal (1860)
In 1833, Bunsen became a lecturer at Göttingen and
began experimental studies of the (in)solubility of Davy Medal (1877)
metal salts of arsenous acid. His discovery of the use Albert Medal (1898)
of iron oxide hydrate as a precipitating agent led to Scientific career
what is still today the most effective antidote against Fields Chemistry
arsenic poisoning. This interdisciplinary research was
Institutions Polytechnic School of
carried on and published in conjunction with the
Kassel
physician Arnold Adolph Berthold.[12][13] In 1836,
Bunsen succeeded Friedrich Wöhler at the Polytechnic University of Marburg
School of Kassel (German: Baugewerkschule Kassel). University of Breslau
Bunsen taught there for three years, and then accepted University of Heidelberg
an associate professorship at the University of
Doctoral Friedrich Stromeyer
Marburg, where he continued his studies on cacodyl
advisor
derivatives. He was promoted to full professorship in
Doctoral Adolf von Baeyer
1841. While at University of Marburg, Bunsen
students Friedrich Konrad Beilstein
participated in the 1846 expedition for the
investigation of Iceland's volcanoes.[14] Georg Ludwig Carius
Edward Frankland
Bunsen's work brought him quick and wide acclaim,
Hans Goldschmidt
partly because cacodyl, which is extremely toxic and
undergoes spontaneous combustion in dry air, is so Carl Graebe
difficult to work with. Bunsen almost died from Fritz Haber
arsenic poisoning, and an explosion with cacodyl cost Francis Robert Japp
him sight in his right eye. His work with Cadet's Hermann Kolbe
fuming liquid was an important step in the
Philipp Lenard
development of the radical theory of organic
compounds. Adolf Lieben
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm
In 1841,[15] Bunsen created the Bunsen cell battery, Ludwig
using a carbon electrode instead of the expensive Lothar Meyer
platinum electrode used in William Robert Grove's
Viktor Meyer
electrochemical cell. Early in 1851 he accepted a
Henry Enfield Roscoe
professorship at the University of Breslau, where he
taught for three semesters. Thomas Edward Thorpe
Other notable Julia Lermontova
In late 1852, Bunsen became the successor of Leopold students
Dmitri Mendeleev
Gmelin at the University of Heidelberg. There he used
electrolysis to produce pure metals, such as chromium, John Tyndall
magnesium, aluminium, manganese, sodium, barium,
calcium, and lithium. A long collaboration with Henry Enfield Roscoe began in 1852, in which they
studied the photochemical formation of hydrogen chloride (HCl) from hydrogen and chlorine. From this
work, the reciprocity law of Bunsen and Roscoe originated. He discontinued his work with Roscoe in
1859 and joined Gustav Kirchhoff to study emission spectra of heated elements, a research area called
spectrum analysis. For this work, Bunsen and his laboratory assistant, Peter Desaga, had perfected a
special gas burner by 1855, which was influenced by earlier models. The newer design of Bunsen and
Desaga, which provided a very hot and clean flame, is now called simply the "Bunsen burner", a common
laboratory equipment.[16][17]

There had been earlier studies of the characteristic colors of heated elements, but nothing systematic. In
the summer of 1859, Kirchhoff suggested to Bunsen that he should try to form prismatic spectra of these
colors. By October of that year, the two scientists had invented an appropriate instrument, a prototype
 spectroscope. Using it, they were able to identify the characteristic
spectra of sodium, lithium, and potassium. After numerous
laborious purifications, Bunsen proved that highly pure samples
gave unique spectra. In the course of this work, Bunsen detected
previously unknown new blue spectral emission lines in samples
of mineral water from Dürkheim. He guessed that these lines
indicated the existence of an undiscovered chemical element.
After careful distillation of forty tons of this water, in the spring of
1860 he was able to isolate 17 grams of a new element. He named
the element "caesium", after the Latin word for deep blue. The
following year he discovered rubidium, by a similar
process.[18][19][20]

In 1860, Bunsen was elected a foreign member of the Royal

Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Gustav Kirchhoff (left) and Robert
Bunsen (right) He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical
Society in 1862.[21]

In 1877, Robert Bunsen together with Gustav Robert Kirchhoff

were the first recipients of the prestigious Davy Medal "for their
researches and discoveries in spectrum analysis".[22]

Personality
Bunsen was one of the most universally admired scientists of his
generation. He was a master teacher, devoted to his students, and
Bunsen's grave in Heidelberg's
they were equally devoted to him. At a time of vigorous and often Bergfriedhof
caustic scientific debates, Bunsen always conducted himself as a
perfect gentleman, maintaining his distance from theoretical
disputes. He much preferred to work quietly in his laboratory, continuing to enrich his science with useful
discoveries. As a matter of principle he never took out a patent. He never married.[2][23]

Despite his lack of pretension, Bunsen was a vivid "chemical character", had a well-developed sense of
humour, and is the subject of many amusing anecdotes.[24]

Retirement and death

When Bunsen retired in 1889 at the age of 78, he shifted his work solely to geology and mineralogy,
interests which he had pursued throughout his career. He died in Heidelberg, Germany on 16 August
1899, at the age of 88.[25][26]

See also
Bunsenite
Flash (photography)
Geysir
Lepidolite
List of German inventors and discoverers
Photobiology
Volcanic gas
Flame test

Notes
a. Sources disagree on Robert Bunsen's exact birth date. His parish register, as well as two
curricula vitae handwritten by Bunsen himself, document 30 March 1811 as Bunsen's true
birth date;[1][2][3][4] however, many later sources cite 31 March as the date.[5][6][7][8][9][10]
According to his biographer Georg Lockemann, Bunsen himself celebrated his birthday on
the 31st in his later years. Lockemann nevertheless regarded the 30th as the correct date.[4]

References
1. Martin Quack (2011). "Wann wurde Robert Wilhelm Bunsen geboren?". Bunsen-Magazin. 2.
Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft für Physikalische Chemie: 56–57.
2. Robert Wilhelm Bunsens Korrespondenz vor dem Antritt der Heidelberger Professur (1852):
kritische Edition; Christine Stock, [ed.] Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft,
2007. ISBN 3-8047-2320-9
3. "Robert Wilhelm Bunsen" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/84752/Robert-Wilhel
m-Bunsen), Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia
Britannica, 2011. Web. 3 April 2011
4. Georg Lockemann: Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. Lebensbild eines deutschen Naturforschers,
Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1949, p. 18
5. American Chemical Society (1900). "Professor Robert W. Bunsen" (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=u9oBAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA89). Journal of the American Chemical Society.
23 (9). American Chemical Society: 89–107. Bibcode:1900GeoM....7R.431. (https://ui.adsab
s.harvard.edu/abs/1900GeoM....7R.431.). doi:10.1017/S0016756800174655 (https://doi.org/
10.1017%2FS0016756800174655).
6. "Robert Bunsen's 200th Anniversary" (http://www.rsc.org/Library/Collections/Historical/Archi
ve/Bunsen.asp), Royal Society of Chemistry
7. "Bunsen without his burner" (http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9120/34/5/309), Colin A.
Russell, Phys. Educ. 34(5) September 1999
8. "Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm Eberhard (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830900705.ht
ml), Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography (2008). Retrieved 31 March 2011 from
Encyclopedia.com
 9. Jones, F.; Grossmann, J. (1911). "The Centenary of Bunsen's Birth" (https://zenodo.org/reco
rd/1429540). Nature. 86 (2159): 79. Bibcode:1911Natur..86...79J (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.
edu/abs/1911Natur..86...79J). doi:10.1038/086079b0 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F086079b
0). S2CID 3989053 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:3989053).
10. Teller, J. D. (1943). "Humanizing Science and Mathematics by Commemorating March
Anniversaries". School Science and Mathematics. 43 (3): 234–250. doi:10.1111/j.1949-
8594.1943.tb05846.x (https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1949-8594.1943.tb05846.x).
11. Weeks, Mary Elvira (1956). The discovery of the elements (https://archive.org/details/discov
eryoftheel002045mbp) (6th ed.). Easton, PA: Journal of Chemical Education.
12. "Robert Wilhelm Bunsen" (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Robert_Wilhelm_Bunsen.asp
x). Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
13. Ripley, George; Dana, Charles A., eds. (1879). "Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm" (https://en.wikiso
urce.org/wiki/The_American_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_(1879)/Bunsen,_Robert_Wilhelm). The
American Cyclopædia.
14. Oesper, R.E. (1941). "Bunsen's Trip to Iceland as Recounted in Letters to His Mother". J.
Chem. Educ. 18 (6): 253–260. Bibcode:1941JChEd..18..253O (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.ed
u/abs/1941JChEd..18..253O). doi:10.1021/ed018p253 (https://doi.org/10.1021%2Fed018p2
53).
15. Bunsen, R. (1841). "Ueber eine neue Construction der galvanischen Säule" (https://zenodo.
org/record/1426963). Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie. 38 (3): 311–313.
doi:10.1002/jlac.18410380307 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fjlac.18410380307).
16. Jensen, William B. (2005). "The Origin of the Bunsen Burner". Journal of Chemical
Education. 82 (4): 518. Bibcode:2005JChEd..82..518J (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/20
05JChEd..82..518J). doi:10.1021/ed082p518 (https://doi.org/10.1021%2Fed082p518).
17. "Chemical Manipulation, Being Instructions to Students in Chemistry" (https://archive.org/det
ails/chemicalmanipula00fararich), Internet Archive Michael Faraday, 1827
18. Marshall, James L.; Marshall, Virginia R. (2008). "Rediscovery of the Elements: Mineral
Waters and Spectroscopy" (http://www.chem.unt.edu/~jimm/REDISCOVERY%207-09-2018/
Hexagon%20Articles/bunsen%20and%20spectroscopy.pdf) (PDF). The Hexagon: 42–48.
Retrieved 31 December 2019.
19. Lockemann, G.; Oesper, R. (1955). "Bunsen's Transfer from Cassel to Marburg". J. Chem.
Educ. 32 (9): 456–460. Bibcode:1955JChEd..32..456L (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/19
55JChEd..32..456L). doi:10.1021/ed032p456 (https://doi.org/10.1021%2Fed032p456).
20. "Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff" (https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/robe
rt-bunsen-and-gustav-kirchhoff). Science History Institute. June 2016. Retrieved 20 March
2018.
21. "APS Member History" (https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=1862;year-max=
1862;smode=advanced;startDoc=1). search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
22. "Davy Medal – Royal Society" (https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/davy
-medal/). royalsociety.org. The Royal Society. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
23. Lockemann, G. (1949). Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche
Verlagsgesellschaft. pp. 214–223.
24. Jensen, William B. (2013) Chapter 2, pp. 7–31 in "Characters in Chemistry: A Celebration of
the Humanity of Chemistry", doi:10.1021/bk-2013-1136.ch002 (https://doi.org/10.1021%2Fb
k-2013-1136.ch002), American Chemical Society Symposium Series, Vol. 1136.
ISBN 9780841228016.
25. Lockemann, Georg (1957), "Bunsen, Robert" (https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0001/bs
b00016319/images/index.html?seite=34), Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 3,
Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 18–20; (full text online (https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/
ppn118664999.html))
26. Roscoe, Henry (1900). "Bunsen Memorial Lecture" (https://zenodo.org/record/1874777).
Journal of the Chemical Society, Transactions. 77: 513. doi:10.1039/CT9007700513 (https://
doi.org/10.1039%2FCT9007700513).

Further reading
Gasometry: Comprising the Leading Physical and Chemical Properties of Gases (https://arc
hive.org/details/gasometrycompri00bunsgoog/page/n17) by Robert Bunsen; translated by
Henry Roscoe. London: Walton and Maberly, 1857
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, by Georg Lockemann, 1949.
Sir Henry Roscoe's "Bunsen Memorial Lecture", in: Trans. Chem. Soc., 1900, reprinted (in
German) with other obituary notices in an edition of Bunsen's collected works published by
Wilhelm Ostwald and Max Bodenstein in 3 vols. at Leipzig in 1904. This is Gesammelte
Abhandlungen von Robert Bunsen: im Auftrage der Deutschen Bunsen-Gesellschaft für
angewandte Physikalische Chemie hrsg. von Wilhelm Ostwald und Max Bodenstein. 3
Bände. Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1904
Crew, H. (1899). "Robert Wilhelm Bunsen". The Astrophysical Journal. 10: 301–305.
Bibcode:1899ApJ....10..301C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1899ApJ....10..301C).
doi:10.1086/140654 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F140654).

External links
Media related to Robert Bunsen at Wikimedia Commons
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (https://web.archive.org/web/20070927224234/http://www.woodrow.
org/teachers/ci/1992/Bunsen.html)
Robert Bunsen (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=123967) at the Mathematics
Genealogy Project

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