Georg Lunge (1839-1923) - Journal of Chemical Education (ACS

Georg Lunge (1839-1923). E. Berl. J. Chem. Educ. , 1939, 16 (10), p 453. DOI: 10.1021/ed016p453. Publication Date: October 1939. Note: In lieu of an a...
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GEORG LUNGE (1839-1923)' E. BERL Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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EORG LUNGE was born in Breslau, Upper Silesia, September 15, 1839. He was the son of a merchant. He studied under the famous botanist and founder of bacteriology, Ferdinand Cohn (1828-1898) who did fundamental work on protoplasm.% Lunge got his doctor's degree from the University of Breslau in 1859, when he was not quite twenty, with a dissertation on alcoholic fermentation-just when the famous discussion between Liebig (1803-1870) and Pasteur (1822-1895) concerning fermentation and catalysis began to develop. Lunge then went to Heidelberg and studied under Bunseu (1811-1899), in the same year that the spectral analysis was developed by Kirchhoff (18241887) and Bunsen. It may be of interest to cite the letter which Bunsen wrote on November 15, 1859, to Roscoe (1833-19151, describing one of the most wonderful discoveries and progresses ever made by man. "Actually Kirchhoff and I are occupied with a mutual investigation which does not let us sleep. Kirchhoff has made a wonderful, totally unexpected discovery. He has found the cause of the dark lines in the spectrum of the sun and has reproduced the same artificially in the spectrum of the sun and in the spectrum of flamer without lines, coinciding their position with the identical lines of Fraunhofer (1787-1826). Now the way is given to investigate the material composition of the sun and the fixed stars with the same exactitude as we can determine sulfur. chlorine, and so forth, by our reagents. "On the earth all these substances can be distinguished and found with the same exactitude as on the sun so that, for instance, I can detect a content of lithium in 20 g. of sea water. "For the detection of certain substances this method is preferred to all other known methods. If you have a mixture of Li, K, Na, Ba, Sr, Ca, then you need only t o bring 1 mg. of it in our apparatus to read all those substances directly by telescope by simple observation. Some of these reactions are wonderfully sharp. For instance, one can detect 0.005 mg. of Li with the greatest ease. I have found this material in nearly all potashes."

parts and when, forty-five years later, Haber (18681934) carried out his very important work concerning the water-gas equilibrium of the Bunsen flame. The next year, in 1860, Lunge, the twenty-one-yearold doctor of philosophy, became a chemist in a German fertilizer plant. He made experiments on the production of white paper from straw. In 1862 he established his own plant for the production of potassium ferrocyanide, sal ammoniac, lead salts, tartaric acid, and

so forth. This plant did not operate according to Lunge's wishes. Therefore, he decided to go to England. The Latin inscription on the grave of FraunhoferAt this time England was the country where ap"He brought us nearer the starsH-could be used with the same, or perhaps greater, right for Bunsen and plied chemistry was most advanced, especially inorganic chemistry. The cradle of modern chemistry was Kirchhoff. From Heidelberg Lunge published a paper on the in France where, a t the end of the eighteenth and the composition of the gases in the dark cone of non- beginning of the nineteenth centuries, many great luminous gas flames (Bunsen burner flames). This scientists, like Lavoisier (1743-1794), Dulong (1785first publication of Lunge became important when 1838), and Dumas (1800-1884), carried out their imSmithells split the flame of the Bunsen burner in two portant work. It is known that in 1822 Liebig went to Paris to study under Th6nard (1777-1859), the dis' Presented before the Division of History of Chemistry a t the coverer of hydrogen peroxide, and under Gay-Lussac ninetv-eichth meetine of the A. C. S.. Boston. Mass... Scotember . (1778-1850). The development of the German scien12, 1639.At the beginning of a semester Cohn used to say, "The plant tific chemistry and chemical industry was greatly body is composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen" influenced by this transplantation of the new French and, writing the chemical symbols of these elements on the blackchemistry t i ~ e r m a n ~ . board, his name, CORN,appeared. 453

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The very important British textile industry was responsible for the development of the British chemical industry. Large quantities of sodium carbonate, caustic sodium hydroxide, soap, and bleaching materials had to be produced. In the first sixty years of the last century sodium carbonate was produced exclusively by the Leblanc (1742-1806) soda process. Our present chemical industry would not have been developed to

Gay-Lussac tower was invented in 1827 and used for the first time in 1842. Many sulfuric acid producers did not use the Gay-Lussac tower a t this time and afterwards. John Glover (1817-1902) introduced the Glover tower in 1859. It was improved in 1864 when towers were built of about the same construction as today. Lunge saw this tower first in 1865 and gave it its name. In the following years, as usual when new, surprising things are invented, a discussion took place concerning the advantages and disadvantages of the Glover tower. Today one cannot believe that this great advance was resisted. There is no doubt that Lunge's publications on the merits of the Glover tower are responsible for the rather quick acceptance of this important amelioration. It may be of interest to note

the present stage without the teaching and experiences gained by the development of the Leblanc process. The utilization of all compounds entering into the Leblanc process is ideal. The basic materials of the Leblanc orocess were sodium chloride, sulfuric acid. limestone, and coke.

The sulfuric acid industry has its own most important history. On Clement's (1779-1841) and Desormes' (1777-1862) observations (HOG), Berzelius (17791848) based his conception of catalysis (1835). The

that Clemens Winkler (1838-1904) in 1867 also proposed to denitrate nitrosylsulfuric acid from the GayLussac tower acid by hot sulfur dioxide, not knowing that this process had already been used by Glover and others for several years. He had to add water. Glover's proposition to use water in the form of diluted sulfuric acid certainly presents a great progress over Winkler. The sulfuric acid was used mostly for the production of sodium sulfate, superphosphate, and of nitric acid. In these years when soda was produced in several' places in England, especially in Newcastle-on-Tyne and other places near Liverpool, enormous amounts of hydrochloric acid escaped without being recovered. They caused the destruction of all vegetation. Lord Derby's Act of 1863 demanded a nearly complete recovery (more than ninety-five per cent.) of this harmful substance. This Act became very important because now the British industry was forced to convert the recovered hydrochloric acid into chlorine, chlorates. and into bleaching powder necessary for the bleaching of the British textiles. This was done first withmangauesedioxide whose recovery with the Weldon (1832-1885) process (1866) was of great importance. In 186'7 Deacon (1822-1876) invented his catalytical process

for the conversion of hydrochloric acid into chlorine This is one of the first, modern, heterogeneous catalytic processes introduced in the chemical industry. During Lunge's stay in England new and important changes in the production of soda had taken place. In 1861 Ernest Solvay (1839-1922), then an employee

monium bicarbonate and sodium chloride, he would not have dared, as a young, inexperienced engineer without capital, to enter this field. It is very well known that both industrialists, Ernest Solvay and Ludwig Mond, died extremely rich men. Toward the end of his life Solvay seemed to be rather disappointed. He gave great sums to many research institutions, especially to the University of Brussels, hoping that the puzzle of life could be explained. We know very well that the progress in this field is extremely slow; that money alone cannot contribute very much for the development of this most important problem of mankind. A; long as Lunge was in England the progress of the Solvay soda process was rather slow so that in 1876, when he left England, the competition with the Leblanc process was not yet serious. At this time about eight per cent. of the total soda production was made of the Brussels Gas Works, tried to find some use for with the ammonia process. ammonia which was produced as a by-product of the But soon afterward the price production of illuminating gas. At this time prac- for one ton of sodium cartically no application was known for large quantities bonate went down from of ammonia. Its use as a fertilizer (ammonium sulfate fifty-six dollars (gold) ta or ammonium nitrate) and as a material for the pro- t w e n t y - t w o d o l l a r s . Finally, the Leblanc process, duction of nitric acid and in spite of its perfect utiliurea became imoortant : zation of all components of afterward. Solvay, with the raw materials; could not resist. On the other hand, the help of money lent very often the Solvay process wastes practically all chloby his family and by rine of the sodium chloride. In the Leblanc process one friends, built his first has to handle solid substances. In the ammonia soda plant in Couillet, near process, solutions and gases have to be transported, and Charleroi, Belgium, in 1863. He based his process on the reaction NaCl NH4HC03 = ; NaHC08 NHCl. Enormous difficulties had to be overcome. In 1872 Solvay gave a license for England toLudwig Mond (1839-1909) JOHN GLOVER who, with a Swiss companion, founded the company, Brunner, Mond and Company, now I. C. I. This company also had tremendous diEculties and, soon after the start, was on the verge of bankruptcy. Solvay and his brother, Alfred, who, as a business man, had the same genius as Ernest Solvay as a chemical engineer, developed the Solvay process so that fifty years afterward not one single Leblanc soda plant existed in the world. For the writer it is an unforgettable episode when, in 1910, he made the personal acquaintance of Ernest Solvay. Solvay toldhim that if only at the end of the operation solid sodium bicarbonhe had known that great men l i k e - ~ y a r Hemming, , Schlosing (18241885), and Bolley (1812-1870) had ate results. Furthermore, the Leblanc soda process tried unsuccessfully to use this reaction between am- needs much more fuel, power, and labor than the

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Solvay process. These are the reasons why the Leblanc defended every improvement with great vigor, and is process could not compete with the Solvay process. certainly responsible for quick advances in different This was the situation during Lunge's stay in Eng- industries. land. On the Continent a t this time, the chemical There must have been a desire on Lunge's part to industry was not developed in the same way as the return to the academic world, in spite of his interest British industry was. The French chemical indus- and success in technical matters. In 1875 a t the Polytrialists did not use the really wonderful teachings of technical School (now Technical University) in Zurich, the French scientists a t the end of the eighteenth cen- the position of a professor of technical chemistry betury and the first forty years of the nineteenth cen- came vacant. In this position were Bolley, the editor tury. The German chemical industry really only of the first handbook on chemical technical analysis, started in the sixties of the nineteenth c e n t ~ r y . ~and after him, Emil Kopp (1817-1875) who excelled in A. W. Hofmann (1818-1892) had just returned to Ber- the field of dyestuffs. At this time the Polytechnical lin (1865) from London where he and his seventeen- School was governed by an extremely capable, former year-old assistant, Perkin (183&1907), laid the fonnda- lawyer, Karl Kappeler (1816-1888)."appeler, after tion for the industry of the artificial dyes (1856). Emil Kopp's death, first asked Heinrich Caro (1834Lunge's first position in England was in a plant 1910), the leading chemist in the dyestuff field of the where coal-tar products were made. In 1867 he pub- rather small German Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik lished his first hook on coal tar and ammonia which up a t this time, if he would accept this position. Caro was then occupied with very many extremely important problems in the field of organic dyestuffs. He declined the offer but suggested that Kappeler should get in touch with Lunge. Both men met in Koln, and Lunge decided to accept Kappeler's offer. He went to Zurich in 1876 and filled a position there for thirtytwo years, and brought world fame to the Polytechnical School of Zurich. At this time and later this school was really one of the first technical schools in the world.6 There is no doubt that Lunge was one of the most excellent teachers of his time. The progress in the field of chemical engineering and chemical technology can he traced back to Lunge's activity as a teacher. The writer attended some of his classes, and he remembers very well the deep impression he got from Lunge's lectures, thirty-five years ago. Most of his teachings were based on his own experience, and the student was .. taught this field of chemical technology in a really ideal way.6 At the beginning of his Zurich activity, Lunge GEORGLUNGE had to cover not only the field of inorganic technology and fuels, hut also the field of organic technology, to 1912 was published in five editions in German and especially the field of artificial dyestuffs, natural and in English. In 1865, &st as chemist, then as superin- artificial fiber goods, bleaching, and dyeing. tendent, he came into a newly founded, rather small In 1886, with Victor Meyer, he built a chemistry soda plant in South Shields, near Newcastle-on-Tyne. building in Zurich which, a t the time of its construeHere he was in direct contact with that part of the tion, certainly was the most perfect of its kind.' In it chemical industry to which he devoted practicaIlv his ' At a dinner in honor of Victor Meyer (1848-1897). Kappeler whole future life. This was the acid and alkali inthe following definition of chemistry, "Chemistry is a dustry. Very soon he founded the Newcastle Chemical gave terrible science. costs a lot of monev. and stinks horriblv." Society which afterward was converted into the So' Zeuner, ~ e u l e a u xClausius, , em&, Bolley, Kopp. V: Meyer. ciety of Chemical Industry. He developed his soda Escher, v . d. Linth, Kullmann, Nigeli, Fiedlcr, and many other scientlsts taught there. Several of them knew well their plant and found time to publish articles on many ~great arr o s i t i o nin the learned world. One used to sav. -. "There ~~~different subjects so that his name became well known bnly two famous representatives in my. orofessi&--the other is . in the chemical industry and in the academic world. already dead." He spoke, for example, of the blast furnace process and the Reading his publications today, one is surprised a t how vain efforts to convert all carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide broad Lunpe's interest was, and how well informed he by increasins the size of the blast furnace stoves. In former tl'mcs the escaping gases were burned and one of these stoves on became ondifferent subjects. the coast of Scotland seemed like a lighthouse and was the cause Lunge studied all of the advances which were made .f d , , shipwrecks. ' Fifty years ago Lunge built there one of the first air condiin the field of his activity with the greatest care. He ~~~~

a The Badische Anilin u. Sodafabrik was founded May, 1865; the Farbenfabriken vorm. Bayer and Company, 1863.

timing installations by cooling warm air with cold water. The greatest difference in temperature in this building, summer and winter, was 5-C.

very important contributions to science and industry were and are made. Great scientists like Heumann (1851-1894), Gnehm (1852-1923), Treadwell (18571918), Hantzsch (1857-1935), E. Bamberger (18571932), Willstatter (1872-), Standimger 1881-), Wiegner 11883-1936). Ruzicka (1887-), a i d o t h e r s worked and taught there. The center of gravity of Lunge's teaching activity was in the laboratory. He saw every student in his fifth and sixth semesters every day. Accompanied by his assistant, he discussed with the student his particular problem, gave the necessary instruction, and in this way educated a large number of excellent men in the field of technical analysis. At the end of this laboratory course, the student very often began his activity in research work. With the help of graduate students, Lunge solved many important problems in his later years. His experimental work during the first twenty years of his scientific activity a t Zurich was made practically without the help of collaborators. A great part of his scientific activity in Zurich was devoted to the study of the sulfuric acid lead chamber process. It is greatly to ~ u n ~ c 'credit-tha; s he 1 clariintini many of the cornnlicated auestions His last scientific work with the writer during the years 1904-1907 was devoted to this problem. Fritz Raschi~ 11863~ 1928), certainly one of the best-informed men in the field of the chemistry of sulfur-nitrogen c o m pounds, in 1887-8 developed a very interesting theory of the lead chamber which was objected K. F. Kmn.xnxx to by Lunge. Raschig afterward entered the service of Badische Anilin und Sodafabrik, Ludwigshafen (now I. G.). After a few years he left the I. G. and founded his own company which did extremely successful work. Raschig made many very valuable inventions, especially in the field of synthetic phenol, phenol derivatives, and phenol-formaldehyde compounds. He invented a very important process for the production of hydrazine. His Raschig rings are well known all over the world. He developed an

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interesting, continuous process for the distillation of complicated mixtures like coal tar. After having done such excellent work in the field of applied chemistry, in 1904 Raschig returned again to his theoretical views which be had developed more than twenty-five years before. The discussion with Raschig which followed afterward (1904-1907) was of great importance for the development of the lead chamber process. From this discussion sprang up a new development which is known as the intensified production process of sulfuric acid. Opl in Czechoslovakia was the first to make use

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of Lunge's and the writer's experiments whereby nitrosylsulfuric acid in a somewhat labilized state did convert per one mol many thousand mols of SO2 and oxygen into sulfuric acid. Unfortunately, during this discussion with Raschig, the personal element entered in and excited Lunge so much that in 1907 he resigned his professorship and retired to private life. The study of the theory of the lead chamber process was later taken up by the writer and his collaborators. It was shown that the theory developed with Lunge was right, and that, based on this theory, by the use of increased pressure, the output per unit of time and unit of volume could be increased ten thousand times compared with the output in older systems. When Raschig died in 1928, the writer paid him the last honor. Raschig's collaborator, Prahl, told him then that the late, great scientist and industrialist had convinced himself that some of his former views were wrong. He had decided to publish this, but, unfortunately, Death took his pen from his hand. After his death, Prahl did it in his name. Besides extensive and intensive work in the field of sulfuric acid, lead chamber and contact process, Lunge did work in the field of coal tar. His researches on cellulose nitrates (Chr. F. Schonbein, R. C. Bottger) are important. Here he cleared up many wrong views and created the basis of the modern prodnction of these cellulose esters. He determined the density of the most important acids, alkalies, and salt

solutions. This work is just as important today as it was fifty years ago. Further work was done in the field of water-gas production and gas producers. Other research work concerning the Deacon-Hurter process for the production of chlorine from hydrochloric acid and oxygen has thrown important light on this very interesting catalytic process. Connected with this work were his important studies on the constitution and formation of bleaching powder.

Lunge did important work for the elimination of yellow phosphorus in the match industry. The yellow phosphorus caused a terrible disease among the workmen, the so-called phosphorus necrosis. Besides this research work, Lunge made several important inventions. Before the olenm contact process was worked out, he introduced an ingenious process (1882) to produce sulfuric acid monohydrate by freezing concentrated ninety-four to ninety-seven per cent.sulfuric acid and separating the frozen monohydrate formed from the weaker mother liquid (containing ninety-two per cent. sulfuric acid). A very important invention was his reaction tower (1886) known under the name of the Lunge-Rohrmann plate reaction tower. This tower, used formerly on a rather large scale in the chemical industry, increased the production-of sulfuric acid i n the leadchamberprocessconsiderably. Thisreaction tower was used also in other industries. I t is the forerunner of the packed towers which, filled with rings or saddles, have obtained widest use in industry. Lunge's process to form nitric acid and alkali by heating sodium nitrate with iron oxide did not become

important from a technical standpoint, in spite of the interesting, underlying reaction. At that time materials could not be found which would stand the action of alkali and acid at the same time. It may be that this process today, with our improved construction materials, could be carried out in an industrial way. He contributed important progress based on the analysis of silicates, finding the differences in the reactivity of colloidal and crystallized silicic acid with weak and strong alkali. This work is important for the knowledge of fire-proof clay. Another field of Lunge's activity was the invention and the improvement of many laboratory methods. We owe to him the introduction of methyl orange (1878) as an indicator and the study of the action of other indicators. This work was done in connection with the use of filtered drinking water from the Lake of Zurich. Typhoid epidemics which caused many

deaths by the use of unfiltered water disappeared when, through careful filtration, all dangerous bacteria were removed. His publications on standard solutions and on standard titrimetric substances are of greatest importance. Lunge's method for the analysis of pyrites is used with slight modifications all over the world. His gas analysis methods, especially the development of his nitrometer (1878) and gas volumeter (1890-1892) are of the greatest importance for technical analysis. The nitrometer method was first described by Crum (1847). Lunge's modification, by using the mercury not only as a reducing agent but also as confining liquid, is the reason for the broad application of this method. His gas volumeter, wherebithe reduction of a gas volume to O0C. and 760 mm. pressure is made mechanically, is based also on a very ingenious idea. Lunge introduced other gas volumetric methods, for instance, the determination of hydrogen peroxide by hypochlorites. The determination of the strength of permanganate solutions with hydroperoxide and, vice versa, the

introduction of sodium carbonate as a standard titrimetric substance, and other methods have found much use in technical chemical laboratories. We cannot overestimate the importance of this part of Lunge's experimental work. Before his time the recipe of the foreman ruled in the older chemical technic. Through Lunge's work, this was replaced by a

strong bridge of scientific certainty. Now it became possible to get an insight into the complicated reactions of the chemical industry, and to reproduce them without failures and setbacks. Lunge was an extremely fertile writer of technical publications and very valuable books. His work is known all over the world. Altogether he published six hundred seventy-five publications, among them eighty-six books and pamphlets. He had the wonderful talent to write with the greatest ease. During forty-five years he worked sixteen hours a day. His book on coal tar and ammonia (five editions) has been mentioned. His books on soda manufacture, and especially his book on sulfuric acid, are fundamental. This handbook of the soda industry was first published in 1879. The fourth and last edition was published in 1916. He translated this handbook himself from German into English. It has also been translated into French by Naville. Lunge published three editions of a comprehensive work on "Technical Methods of Chemical Analysis." The first two editions of this book were published by F. R. Bkkmann. The writer had the privilege of publishing the sixth edition with Lunge, and the seventh and eighth editions after Lunge's death. These '.'Technical Methods of Chemical Analysis" were published first in two volumes. Lunge increased the number of volumes to three and, with the writer, the number was increased to four, and finally to five volumes. The "Pocket Handbook for the Inorganic Chemical Industry" was edited in 1893 by Lunge in connection with the association of the German soda producers. The fourth, fifth, and sixth editions also were published

by Lunge and the writer, and the seventh edition by the writer alone after Lunge's death. I t was translated also into English and French. These hooks are of great importance for the chemical industry. Lunge, who had the broadest experience in the field of technical chemical analysis, laid down all his experiences in these books. Furthermore, those parts for which he was not a specialist were written by the best specialists. ~ u n was ~ e the kindest of men. Misfortunes he had in his own family did not harden his heart. He did all that was in his power to bring his students into positions and to improve their situation. For many years the English, Swiss, and German industries got many of their best men in the field of technical chemistryfrom

Lunge'slaboratory. Rene Bohn(1862-1922) and Robert E. Schmidt (1864-1938), certainly the greatest chemists of their time in the field of alizarin dyestuffs, especially indanthren dyestuffs, were former students and assistants of Lunge. Alfred Werner (1866-1919), the "great inorganic Kekul6," and Nobel prize winner (1913), also Lunge's pupil, always had t h e g r e a t e s t admiration for Lunge who was responsible for his advanced studies under Berthelot (1827-1907) in Paris. After having discovered the asymmetry of nitrogen in 1890,Werner became assistant to Lunge. After one semester of this activity, Lunge told Werner, "You are fired as my assist.*I.W~N M r ~ ~ ~ s c n ant. I cannot use your services any more because you are much too good for this minor position. I know that your father is a man of little means. With his and my help it may be possible for you to study one year

in Paris." In this one year the theory of inorganic compounds ripened in Werner's head. It is not widely known that, in preparing his notes for his lectures, he dreamed his theory which afterward made him famous. Within one week, working day and night, Werner worked out and wrote down the theory of inorganic compounds which was published in 1892. This fundamental publication contains all the elements of his future scientific work which he carried out until 1915 when he became ill. Alfred Werner died in 1919. Without Lunge's help he would probably have had to spend much more energy to reach this highest peak of any scientific activity. The writer of these lines also owes much gratitude to Lunge. During the years of their collaboration, from 1904 until his death in January, 1923, Lunge was like a father to him. When Lunge entered the chemical industry, this industry was based mostly on the production of lead chamber sulfuric acid, sodium carbonate according to the Leblanc process, and the caustfication of sodium carbonate with lime. At the end of his life, of which he had given more than sixty years to research, the contact sulfuric acid assumed a very important place. The Leblanc soda industry was superseded by the Solvay process. The caustification alkali hydroxide was partly replaced by the mightily developing electrolytic industry. Chlorine which was formerly produced by the Weldon and Deacon process is now produced by the electrolytic process. Organic chemistry celebrated its great triumphs. Willstatter (1872-), Lunge's colleague in the Technical University of Zurich, did his fundamental research work on chlorophyl, the assimilation of carbonic acid and water in the plant and on enzymes. The organic dyestuff industry got a tremendous development, also the pharmaceutical industry, and the explosives industry. Alfred Nobel (18331896), who made his most important first inventions when Lunge entered the field, left the world with the most powerful explosives for war and for civilian purposes. The rayon industry, based on Count Chardounet's (1839-1924) and Cross' (1855-1935) inventions, de;eloped to .a most important industry. Progresses in the production of pig iron, steel [(Bessemer, 1813-1892),

(P. Martin, 1824-1915), (Thomas, 1850-1885)], and special steels (B. Strauss, 1880-) and alloys were made. The industry of aluminum [(Wohler, 18001883), (Bnnsen, 1811-1899), (Hall, 1863-1914), (Heroult, 1863-1914), (Kiliani, 1858-1895)], magnesium, and light alloys was developed. The physical chemistry was created by van't Hoff (1852-1911), Arrhenius (1859-1927), W. Ostwald, Horstmann (1842-1929), and many others. The most important industrial consequences of this science were drawn by Lunge's distant relative, Fritz Haber. The formation of ammonia from its elements by the high pressure synthesis of Haber and Bosch (1872-), its combustion to nitric oxides and their conversion to nitric acid [(Kuhlmann, 1803-1881), (W. Ostwald, 18531932), (Mittasch, 1869-), (Bosch)], the hydrogenation of coal by Bergius (1884-) the 6rst steps to produce liquid hydrocarbons, alcohols, acids, and so forth, by the hydrogenation of carbon monoxide (Mittasch), were made before Lunge died. These sixty years of his life covered the greatest progress in the field of industrial chemistry in which he, through his own work as a chemical engineer and as a research man, contributed immensely. Lunge was forced to retire in 1907 because his health was impaired by arteriosclerosis. Unfortunately, after his retirement, his memory suffered greatly. After a life which lasted eighty-three years and three months, Death took him away, honored and loved by many hundreds of his former pupils. Lunge's personality cannot be better characterized than with these words which Fritz Haber, then president of the German Chemical Society, spoke after Lunge's death: "His example is a reminder that science not only serves its awn systematic progress, but it has to help men so that they find

better conditions of life. In the realm of scientific abstraction there are independent kingdoms of thought and experiment, and ruler is he whose glory outlasts the centuries. The masters of thought and experiment are not the only kings in science. He is also a king who, through knowledge and work, through teaching and research in the field of applied science, guides the spirits of the contemporaries, and who in scientific work conquers provinces in which previously only the craft undertook expeditions. Such was the kinedom of Georn - Lunne." .