Wilhelm Ostwald

Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (2 September [O.S. 21 August] 1853 – 4 April 1932) was a Baltic German chemist and philosopher. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his scientific contributions to the fields of catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities.[1] Ostwald, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, and Svante Arrhenius are credited with being the founders of the field of physical chemistry.[2]

Wilhelm Ostwald
Wilhelm Ostwald by Nicola Perscheid
Born2 September [O.S. 21 August] 1853
Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire
Died4 April 1932(1932-04-04) (aged 78)
Großbothen, Amtshauptmannschaft Grimma, Saxony, Weimar Republic
NationalityBaltic German
Alma materImperial University of Dorpat
Known forCatalysis
Coining the term 'Mole'
HSL and HSV
Liesegang rings
Ostwald dilution law
Ostwald process
Ostwald ripening
Ostwald's rule
Ostwald viscometer
Ostwald-Folin Pipette
Ostwald–Freundlich equation
AwardsFaraday Lectureship Prize (1904)
Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1909)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysical chemistry
InstitutionsImperial University of Dorpat
Riga Polytechnical Institution
Leipzig University
Doctoral advisorCarl Schmidt
Doctoral studentsArthur Amos Noyes
Georg Bredig
Paul Walden
Frederick George Donnan

Early life and education

Ostwald was born ethnically Baltic German in Riga, to master-cooper Gottfried Wilhelm Ostwald (1824–1903) and Elisabeth Leuckel (1824–1903). He was the middle child of three, born after Eugen (1851–1932) and before Gottfried (1855–1918).[3]

Ostwald graduated from the University of Dorpat, Estonia, (now Tartu) in 1875. He also earned his Ph.D. at the University of Dorpat in 1878, with Carl Schmidt as his thesis advisor. During this time, Ostwald also taught at Co-Arc from 1875 to 1881 and at Riga Polytechnicum from 1881 to 1887.[3]

Academic career

Ostwald began is career as an independent investigator in 1875 while at the University of Dorpat. His initial research focused on mass action, chemical affinity, electrochemistry, and chemical dynamics. He continued this research in 1877 as an unpaid investigator at the University of Dorpat, working in the Physics Institute and the Chemistry Laboratory at the university.[1]

In 1881, Ostwald became a full time Professor of Chemistry at the Polytechnicum in Riga. In 1887, he became Professor of Physical Chemistry at Leipzig University. Ostwald remained on the faculty at Leipzig University until his retirement in 1906. He also served as the first "exchange professor" at Harvard University in 1904 and 1905.[4][1]

During Ostwald's academic career, he had many research students who became accomplished scientists in their own rite. These included future Nobel Laureates Svante Arrhenius, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, and Walther Nernst. All of these students became notable for their contributions to physical chemistry.[1]

Scientific contributions

Nitric acid process

Ostwald invented a process for the inexpensive manufacture of nitric acid by oxidation of ammonia. He was awarded patents for this process.[5] Ostwald's patent made use of a catalyst and described conditions under which the yield of nitric acid was near the theoretical limit. Aspects of the basic process had also been patented some 64 years earlier by Kuhlmann.[6] Kuhlmann's process did not become industrially significant, likely due to the lack of an inexpensive source of ammonia. Shortly after Ostwald's finding, inexpensive ammonia became available as a result of Haber and Bosch's invention of a process for nitrogen fixing process (completed by 1911 or 1913) for ammonia synthesis. The combination of these two breakthroughs soon led to more economical and larger-scale production of fertilizers and explosives, of which Germany was in short supply during World War I.[7][8] The process is often referred to as the Ostwald Process.[8]

Jacobus van 't Hoff (left) and Wilhelm Ostwald

Further scientific research

Ostwald also conducted significant research on dilution theory leading to his discovery of the law of dilution which is named after him. Ostwald's rule concerns the behaviour of polymorphs. The word mole, according to Gorin, was introduced into chemistry around 1900 by Ostwald. Ostwald defined one mole as the molecular weight of a substance in mass grams. The concept was linked to the ideal gas, according to Ostwald. Ironically, Ostwald's development of the mole concept was directly related to his philosophical opposition to the atomic theory, against which he (along with Ernst Mach) was one of the last holdouts. He explained in a conversation with Arnold Sommerfeld that he was converted by Jean Perrin's experiments on Brownian Motion.[9][10]

In 1906 Ostwald was elected a member of the International Committee on Atomic Weights. As a consequence of World War I this membership ended in 1917 and was not resumed after the war. The 1917 Annual report of the committee ended with the unusual note: "Because of the European war the Committee has had much difficulty in the way of correspondence. The German member, Professor Ostwald, has not been heard from in connection with this report. Possibly the censorship of letters, either in Germany or en route, has led to a miscarriage".[11]

In addition to his work in chemistry, Wilhelm Ostwald was very productive in an extremely broad range of fields. His published work, which includes numerous philosophical writings, contains about forty thousand pages. Ostwald was also engaged in the peace movement of Berta von Suttner.

Among his other interests, Ostwald was a passionate amateur painter who made his own pigments, and who developed a strong interest in color theory in the later decades of his life. He wrote several publications in the field, such as his Malerbriefe (Letters to a Painter, 1904) and Die Farbenfibel (The Color Primer, 1916). His work in color theory was influenced by that of Albert Henry Munsell, and in turn influenced Paul Klee and members of De Stijl, including Piet Mondrian.[12] He was also interested in the international language movement, first learning Esperanto, then later supporting Ido and had become member of Committee of the Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language.[13][14][15] Ostwald donated half the proceedings of his 1909 Nobel prize to the Ido movement,[16] funding the Ido magazine Progreso which he had proposed in 1908.[17]

Ostwald adopted the philosophy of Monism as advanced by Ernst Haeckel and became President of the Monistic Alliance in 1911. He used the Alliance's forum to promote Social Darwinism, eugenics and euthanasia. Ostwald's Monism influenced Carl G. Jung's identification of psychological types.[18]

Ostwald was one of the directors of the Die Brücke institute in Munich. The institute was sponsored, significantly, from Ostwald's Nobel Prize money. Through the institute, Ostwald's intention was to develop a standardized system for scholarly publications.[19]

Honours and awards
Nobel Prize certificate for Wilhelm Ostwald

Ostwald received the 1909 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his contributions to understanding catalysis and for his investigations of the fundamental principles underlying chemical equilibria and reaction rates.[4] Ostwald, donated more than USD40,000 of his Nobel Prize award money to advance the cause of the Ido language.[14]

In 1923, Ostwald was awarded the Wilhelm Exner Medal, recognizing the economic impact of Ostwald's scientific contributions.[20]

In 1904 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[21]

Ostwald crater, which is on the far side of the Earth's moon was named in honor of Wilhelm Ostwald.[22]

Personal life

On 24 April 1880 Ostwald married Helene von Reyher (1854–1946), with whom he had five children. These were: Grete, (1882 - 1960) born in Riga and died in Großbothen; Wolfgang (1883 - 1943) born 1883 in Riga and died in Dresden; Elisabeth (1884- 1968) born in Riga and died in Großbothen; Walter (1886 - 1958) born in Riga and died in Freiburg im Breisgau; and Carl Otto (1890 - 1958) born in Leipzig and died in Leipzig. Wolfgang Ostwald also became a notable scientist.

Ostwald was initiated to the Scottish Rite Masonry and became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge "Zur Aufgehenden Sonne" in Bayreuth[23][24].

In 1887, he moved to Leipzig where he worked for the rest of his life. Arthur Noyes was one of his students, as was Willis Rodney Whitney. On his religious views, Ostwald was an atheist.[25] Ostwald died in a hospital in Leipzig on 4 April 1932, and was buried at his house in Großbothen, near Leipzig and then in the Great Cemetery of Riga.

In fiction

He appears as a character in Joseph Skibell's 2010 novel, A Curable Romantic.

Ostwald is also mentioned in Italo Svevo's 1923 novel, Zeno's Conscience.

Representative publications
  • Ostwald, W. (1900). Grundriss der allgemeinen Chemie. Leipzig: Engelmann.
  • Ostwald, W. (1906). Process of manufacturing nitric acid. Patent.
  • Ostwald, W. (1909). Energetische Grundlagen der Kulturwissenschaft (1st ed.). Leipzig.
  • Couturat, L.; Jespersen O.; Lorenz R.; Ostwald W.; Pfaundler L. (1910). International language and science: Considerations on the introduction of an international language into science. London: Constable and Company Limited.
  • Ostwald, W. (1917). Grundriss der allgemeinen Chemie (5th ed.). Dresden: Steinkopff.

Books
  • Leitlinien der Chemie : 7 gemeinverständliche Vorträge aus der Geschichte der Chemie. Leipzig : Akad. Verl.-Ges., 1906. Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
  • The Scientific foundations of analytical chemistry London: Macmillan, 1908. OCLC 35430378
  • Colour science, London : Winsor & Newton, 1933. OCLC 499690961
  • The color primer : a basic treatise on the color system of Wilhelm Ostwald, New York, N.Y. : Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1969. OCLC 760593331
  • Electrochemistry : history and theory : Elektrochemie: Ihre Geschichte und Lehre. New Delhi : Amerind Publishing Co. 1980. OCLC 702695546

See also

References
  1. "Wilhelm Ostwald Biographical". nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  2. "Svante August Arrhenius". sciencehistory.org. Science History Institute. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  3. Rajasekharan, P.T.; Tiwari, Arun, eds. (2016). "Ostwald, Wilhelm". Profiles in Excellence Nobel Laureates All: 1901-2015. Bangalore, India: Panther Publishers.
  4. "Wilhelm Ostwald Facts". softschools.com. Soft Schools. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  5. W. Ostwald, "Process for Manufacturing Nitric Acid, US858904, July 2, 1907.
  6. Note:
    • Frédéric Kuhlmann, "Pour la fabrication de l'acide nitrique et des nitrates," French patent no. 11,331 (filed: October 1838 ; issued: 22 December 1838). Supplemental patent issued: 7 June 1839. See: Description des machines et procédés consignés dans les brevets d'invention, … [Description of machines and methods recorded in the patents of invention, … ] (Paris, France: Madame Veuve Bouchard-Huzard, 1854), 82 : 160.
    • Fréd. Kuhlmann (1838) "Note sur plusieurs réactions nouvelles déterminées par l'éponge de platine, et considérations sur les services que cette substance est appelée à rendre à la science" (Note on several new reactions caused by platinum sponge, and reflections on the services that this substance is called to render to science), Comptes rendus, 7 : 1107–1110. From page 1109: "1°. L'ammoniaque mêlée d'air en passant à une température de 300° environ sur de l'éponge de platine, est décomposée, et l'azote qu'il renferme est complétement transformé en acide nitrique, aux dépens de l'oxigène de l'air." (1. Ammonia mixed with air, upon passing at a temperature of about 300° over platinum sponge, is decomposed and the nitrogen that it contains is completely transformed into nitric acid, at the expense of the oxygen of the air.)
    • John Graham Smith (1988) "Frédéric Kuhlmann: Pioneer of platinum as an industrial catalyst," Platinum Metals Review, 32 (2) : 84–90.
  7. Louchheim, Justin. "Fertilizer History: The Haber-Bosch Process". tfi.org. The Fertilizer Institute. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  8. Sutton, Mike. "Chemists at War". chemistryworld.org. Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  9. Nye, M., 1972, Molecular Reality: A Perspective on the Scientific Work of Jean Perrin, London: MacDonald.
  10. Gorin, George (February 1994). "Mole and Chemical Amount: A Discussion of the Fundamental Measurements of Chemistry". Journal of Chemical Education. 71 (2): 114. Bibcode:1994JChEd..71..114G. doi:10.1021/ed071p114.
  11. Clark, F.W. (1916). "Annual report of the international committee on atomic weights". J. Am. Chem. Soc. 38 (11): 2219–2221. doi:10.1021/ja02268a001.
  12. John Gage, Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction, Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1993; pp. 247– 8, 257– 60.
  13. Nye, Mary Jo (2016). "Speaking in Tongues: Science's centuries-long hunt for a common language". Distillations. 2 (1): 40–43. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  14. Gordin, Michael D. (2015). Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done Before and After Global English. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226000299.
  15. Forster, Peter Glover (1982). The Esperanto Movement. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9789027933997.
  16. Wall, F. E. (1948). "Wilhelm Ostwald". Journal of Chemical Education. 25 (1): 2–10. Bibcode:1948JChEd..25....2W. doi:10.1021/ed025p2.
  17. Anton, Günter (June 2003). "L'agado di profesoro Wilhelm Ostwald por la LINGUO INTERNACIONA IDO" (in Ido). Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  18. Noll, Richard, The Jung Cult. Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 50
  19. Michael Keeble Buckland (April 2006). Emanuel Goldberg and his knowledge machine: information, invention, and political forces. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-313-31332-5. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
  20. "WIlhelm Ostwald". wilhelmexner.org. Österreichischer Gewerbeverein. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  21. "Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853 - 1932)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  22. "Ostwald". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. International Astronomical Union. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  23. "Ostwald Wilhelm, in the "Masonic Encyclopedia"". freimaurer-wiki.de (in German). Archived from the original on 6 April 2014.
  24. "Celebrating more than 100 years of the Freemasonry: famous Freemasons in the history". Mathawan Lodge No 192 F.A. & A.M., New Jersey. Archived from the original on 10 May 2008.
  25. Jürgen Kocka (2010). Jürgen Kocka (ed.). Work in a Modern Society: The German Historical Experience in Comparative Perspective. Berghahn Books. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-84545-575-0. Even Wilhelm Ostwald, who was the most radical atheist among these scholars, uses the instrument of the 'Monistic Sunday Sermons' to spread his ideas on rationality.
  • Wilhelm Ostwald on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture*, December 12, 1909 On Catalysis
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