BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Bayer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von. Biography of the scientist Directory / Biographies of great scientists
German chemist Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Bayer was born in Berlin on October 31, 1835. He was the eldest of five children of Johann Jakob Bayer and Eugenie (Hitzig) Bayer. Bayer's father, an officer in the Prussian army, was the author of published works on geography and the refraction of light in the atmosphere, and his mother was the daughter of the famous lawyer and historian Julius Eduard Hitzig. The happy days of Adolf Bayer's childhood were overshadowed by great misfortune - his mother died during childbirth. The eldest of the children, Adolf, felt the loss more than others. His father, a specialist in geodesy, spent most of the year traveling. Upon his return, he lived at home for some time, and then, together with Adolf, went to Mülheim. Each time my father brought books, and Adolf remembered one of them, because it was with her that his interest in chemistry began. At the gymnasium, the teacher Schelbach, an excellent mathematician and physicist who also taught chemistry, actively supported Adolf's interest in physics and chemistry. The boy studied with exceptional diligence, so Schelbach made him his assistant in the chemical laboratory. Adolf was happy to give demonstrations of experiments in the audience, but even more important for his development as a chemist were the experiments that he conducted in his home laboratory. After reading Wehler's guide to organic chemistry, Bayer became even more interested in the interesting, mysterious and little-studied science of chemistry. At the age of twelve, he made his first chemical discovery. It was a new double salt - copper and sodium carbonate. After graduating from the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium, Bayer entered the University of Berlin in 1853, where he studied mathematics and physics for the next two years. After the end of the third semester, Bayer was drafted into the army. For a whole year the young man served in the eighth Berlin regiment. It was a difficult time for him, because for a year he did not even manage to open a book. But, finally, having served the due date, Bayer returned home and faced the need to decide what to do next. In the end, he entered the University of Heidelberg and began working in the laboratory of Professor Bunsen. Education at the university was not limited to lecturing; from the beginning of the academic year, students were preparing for research work. At Heidelberg, Bayer focused his attention on physical chemistry. But after the publication of an article on chloromethane in 1857, he became so interested in organic chemistry that, starting from the following year, he began working for Friedrich August Kekule, who was engaged in structural chemistry, in his laboratory in Heidelberg. The laboratory was cramped and sparsely equipped. However, Bayer found in the person of Kekule an excellent teacher who was excellent in the methods of experimental work in organic chemistry, and even better in theory. Under the leadership of Kekule, research went quickly and very successfully. Taking cacodylic acid as the starting material, Bayer in a short time synthesized new, hitherto unknown compounds - methylated arsenic chlorides, for which he was later awarded a doctorate. From 1858, for two years, he worked with Kekule at the University of Ghent in Belgium. In Ghent, Bayer did not have an independent income, he lived on the money that he received monthly from his father. A well-known geodesic scientist, now General Bayer, could afford to support his son, but his father more and more insistently advised Adolf to think about his future himself. At the beginning of 1860 Bayer arrived in Berlin. He passed the exam for Privatdozent brilliantly and began preparations for the upcoming lectures. There were no conditions for experimental work in the Berlin laboratories. Bayer did not have the funds to equip his own laboratory. There was only one thing left - to solve theoretical problems. After the death of his grandfather, well-known scientists, writers, and art critics gathered in the Bayers' house, as before. These evenings were often attended by old Bayer's friend, Privy Councilor Bendemann, who almost always came with his daughter Adelgeyda (Lydia). She became friends with Adolf's sisters. And when Adolf arrived in Berlin, a beautiful, educated friend of the sisters immediately attracted his attention. However, Bayer, who lived on his father's means, could not even think about marriage. I needed to find a job with a steady income as soon as possible. And happiness smiled at him. In 1860, a new discipline, organic chemistry, was introduced at the vocational school, the future Higher Technical School. Bayer accepted the position of lecturer in organic chemistry, although he was entitled to a small salary and half of it had to be given to an assistant who received nothing at all. Influenced by Kekule's passion, Bayer began first to investigate uric acid, and, beginning in 1865, the structural composition of indigo, a blue dye highly valued in industry, named after the plant from which it is obtained. Back in 1841, the French chemist Auguste Laurent, in the course of studying the complex structure of this substance, isolated isatin, a water-soluble crystalline compound. Continuing the experiments begun by Laurent, Bayer obtained isatin in 1866 using a new technology for the recovery of indigo by heating it with powdered zinc. The method used by Bayer allowed for a deeper structural analysis than the oxidation process carried out by Laurent. The prestige of his laboratory increased enormously. Not only researchers, but also industrialists were interested in the young scientist. Bayer's income increased significantly. Now you could think about family life. On August 8, 1868, the wedding of Adelheida Bendemann and Adolf Bayer took place. They had a daughter and three sons, one of whom, Franz, died in 1881. Known for her delicacy, tact, and graceful manner, Mrs. Baier was universally loved and respected. In addition to her husband's young interns, Mrs. Bayer usually invited venerable scientists, writers, artists, and musicians. The young wife not only skillfully took care of the household, but also helped her husband to correspond. Bayer did not like to write. Even scientific articles in which he summed up his research, Bayer wrote with great reluctance. Analyzing the reverse process, obtaining indigo by oxidation of isatin, Bayer in 1870 for the first time managed to synthesize indigo, thus making its industrial production possible. After Bayer moved to Strasbourg in 1872 and took a position as a professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, he began to study condensation reactions that release water. In the course of carrying out condensation reactions of groups of compounds such as aldehydes and phenols, he and his colleagues were able to isolate several important coloring substances, in particular eosin pigments, which he subsequently synthesized. Here Bayer made many friends. Sometimes, after work, the laboratory staff gathered at the scientist’s apartment, since the house in which Bayer lived was located next to the laboratory. At a large and noisy table, funny stories, jokes were told, songs were sung. Adelheida loved these cheerful companies and knew how to enliven them with her art of an excellent hostess. These young people, in love with science, rallied into one big family, at the center of which was Professor Bayer. The scientist lived in Strasbourg for three years. In 1875, after the death of Justus von Liebig, Bayer succeeded this famous organic chemist as professor of chemistry at the University of Munich. Here, for more than four decades, he was the center of attraction for many gifted students. More than fifty of them later became university lecturers. Returning to the study of the exact chemical structure of indigo, Bayer announced the results of his research in 1883. This compound, he says, consists of two linked "rod" molecules (which he called indole). For forty years Bayer's model remained unchanged. It was revised only with the advent of more advanced technology. The study of dyes led Bayer to the study of benzene - a hydrocarbon in the molecule of which 6 carbon atoms form a ring. There have been many competing theories regarding the nature of the bonds between these carbon atoms and the arrangement of the hydrogen atoms within the molecular ring. Bayer, who by his nature was more of an experimental chemist than a theoretician, did not accept any of the theories that existed at that time, but put forward his own - the theory of "voltage". In it, the scientist argued that due to the presence of other atoms in the molecule, the bonds between carbon atoms are under tension and that this tension determines not only the shape of the molecule, but also its stability. And although this theory has received today a somewhat modernized interpretation, its essence, correctly grasped by Bayer, has remained unchanged. Bayer's research on benzene also led Bayer to understand that the structure of the molecules of the benzene group of aromatic compounds, called hydroaromatic, is a cross between a ring formation and the structure of an aliphatic hydrocarbon molecule (without a ring). This discovery made by him not only indicated the relationship between these three types of molecules, but also opened up new possibilities for studying them. In 1885, on the day of Bayer's fiftieth birthday, in recognition of his services to Germany, the scientist was granted a hereditary title, which gave him the right to put the particle "von" before his surname. ... The years passed imperceptibly. The eldest daughter Eugenia has long been married to Professor Oscar Piloty. Sons, Hans and Otto, also found their way in life. There are grandchildren... It was 1905. To celebrate the seventieth birthday of the outstanding scientist, dozens of Bayer's students, now well-known scientists, gathered in Munich. Solemn ceremony, dinner in the large hall. Congratulations came from all over the world. During the celebrations, a message was received that Bayer had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for services to organic chemistry "for his services to the development of organic chemistry and the chemical industry through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds." Since at that time the scientist was ill and could not personally attend the award ceremony, he was represented by the German ambassador. Bayer did not deliver the Nobel lecture. But back in 1900, in an article on the history of indigo synthesis, he said: “Finally, I have in my hands the basic substance for the synthesis of indigo, and I experience the same joy that Emil Fischer probably experienced when, after fifteen years of work synthesized purine - the starting material for the production of uric acid. Becoming a Nobel laureate, Bayer continued to study the molecular structure. His work on oxygen compounds led to discoveries concerning the tetravalence and basicity of oxygen. The scientist also studied the relationship between the molecular structure and the optical properties of substances, in particular color. Bayer maintained personal contacts with many of Europe's leading scientists. Almost without correspondence, he always found time to visit his colleagues, talk with them, learn about their achievements, tell about his own. He was respected and welcomed everywhere as an honored guest. Professorial chairs in many European cities were occupied by his students. They remained attached to the old teacher and, coming to Munich, first of all, visited a familiar house. Bayer's awards included the Davy Medal, awarded by the Royal Society of London. He was a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and the German Chemical Society. The last years of the scientist's life were overshadowed by the outbreak of the World War. The people of Germany bore all the hardships of the massacre on their shoulders, and Bayer took it hard. He began to quickly become decrepit, often choking from a dry cough, and soon fell completely ill. On August 20, 1917, Adolf Bayer died at his country house on Lake Starnberg, near Munich. Author: Samin D.K. 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