Wilhelm Ostwald
Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald
Born	September 2, 1853(1853-09-02) Riga, Latvia
Died	April 4, 1932 (aged 78) Leipzig, Germany
Residence	Germany
Nationality	German
Fields	Physical Chemist
Institutions	University of Dorpat Riga Polytechnicum University of Leipzig
Alma mater	University of Dorpat
Doctoral advisor	Carl Schmidt
Doctoral students	Arthur Amos Noyes Georg Bredig Paul Walden
Known for	Ostwald process Ostwald viscometer
Notable awards	Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1909)

Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald, commonly just Wilhelm Ostwald (Latvian: Vilhelms Ostvalds; September 2, 1853 – April 4, 1932) was a Latvian/German chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities. Ostwald, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, and Svante Arrhenius are usually credited with being the modern founders of the field of physical chemistry. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... For other uses, see Riga (disambiguation). ... is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1932 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Leipzig ( ; Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk from the Sorbian word for Tilia) is, with a population of over 506,000, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. ... A chemist pours from a round-bottom flask. ... The University of Tartu (Estonian: Tartu Ülikool, German: Universität Dorpat) is the national university of Estonia, and the one classical university in Estonia, located in the city of Tartu. ... Riga Technical University (previously known as Riga Polytechnical Institute and Riga Polytechnicum) is located in Riga, Latvia. ... The University of Leipzig (German Universität Leipzig), located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony (former Kingdom of Saxony), Germany, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. ... For other uses, see Alma mater (disambiguation). ... The University of Tartu (Estonian: Tartu Ülikool, German: Universität Dorpat) is the national university of Estonia, and the one classical university in Estonia, located in the city of Tartu. ... Carl Schmidt (June 13, 1822 - February 27, 1894) determined crystal habits of many important biochemicals such as uric acid, oxalic acid and its salts, lactic acid, cholesterin, stearin, etc. ... Arthur Amos Noyes (1866 – 1936) was a U.S. chemist and educator. ... Georg Bredig (October 1, 1868, Glogau, Schlesien - April 24, 1944, New York) was a German physicochemist (Physikochemist). ... Paul Walden (1863 – 1957) was a Latvian chemist. ... The Ostwald process is chemical process for producing nitric acid, which was developed by Wilhelm Ostwald (patented 1902). ... A viscometer (also called viscosimeter) is an instrument used to measure the viscosity of a fluid. ... Image File history File links Nobel_prize_medal. ... List of Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry from 1901 to the present day. ... is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1932 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A stereotypical German The Germans (German: die Deutschen), or the German people, are a nation in the meaning an ethnos (in German: Volk), defined more by a sense of sharing a common German culture and having a German mother tongue, than by citizenship or by being subjects to any particular... A chemist pours from a round-bottom flask. ... This is a list of Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry from 1901 to 2006. ... Jacobus Henricus van t Hoff (August 30, 1852 - March 1, 1911) was a Dutch physical and organic chemist and the winner of the inaugural Nobel Prize in chemistry. ... Svante August Arrhenius (February 19, 1859 – October 2, 1927) was a Swedish chemist and one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry. ... Physical chemistry, is the application of physics to macroscopic, microscopic, atomic, subatomic, and particulate phenomena in chemical systems[1] within the field of chemistry traditionally using the principles, practices and concepts of thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mechanics and kinetics. ...

Biography

He was born in Riga, Livonia, as the son of master-cooper Gottfried Wilhelm Ostwald (1824 – 1903) and Elisabeth Leuckel (1824 – 1903). He had two brothers, Eugen (1851 – 1932) and Gottfried (1855 – 1918). For other uses, see Riga (disambiguation). ... Baltic Tribes, ca 1200 CE This article is about the region in Europe. ... Assembly of a barrel in progress A cooper readies, or rounds off, the end of a barrel using a coopers hand adze at the Van Ryn Brandy Cellar near Stellenbosch, South Africa Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than...

He was ethnically a Baltic German. He graduated from the University of Tartu, Estonia, in 1875, received his Ph.D. there in 1878 under the guidance of Carl Schmidt, and taught at Tartu from 1875 to 1881 and at Riga Polytechnicum from 1881 to 1887. The Baltic Germans (German: Deutsch-Balten, Deutschbalten, sometimes incorrectly Baltendeutsche), were ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea which forms today the countries of Estonia and Latvia. ... The University of Tartu (Estonian: ; Russian: ; German: ) is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... Carl Schmidt (June 13, 1822 - February 27, 1894) determined crystal habits of many important biochemicals such as uric acid, oxalic acid and its salts, lactic acid, cholesterin, stearin, etc. ... Riga Technical University (previously known as Riga Polytechnical Institute and Riga Polytechnicum) is located in Riga, Latvia. ...

On April 24, 1880 Ostwald married Helene von Reyher (1854 – 1946), with whom he had five children:

• Grete (born 1882 in Riga; died 1960 in Großbothen)
• Wolfgang (born 1883 in Riga; died 1943 in Dresden)
• Elisabeth (born 1884 in Riga; died 1968 in Großbothen)
• Walter (born 1886 in Riga; died 1958 in Freiburg im Breisgau)
• Carl Otto (born 1890 in Leipzig; died 1958 in Leipzig)

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. Großbothen is a town in the Muldentalkreis district in Saxony, Germany. ... Carl Wilhelm Wolfgang Ostwald (May 27, 1883 - November 22, 1943) was a German chemist and biologist researching colloids. ... This article is about the city in Germany. ... This article is about Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ... Leipzig ( ; Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk from the Sorbian word for Tilia) is, with a population of over 506,000, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. ... Arthur Amos Noyes (1866 - 1936) was a U.S. chemist and educator. ... Whitney as a MIT faculty member. ...

Overview

Wilhelm Ostwald is usually credited with inventing the Ostwald process (patent 1902), used in the manufacture of nitric acid, although the basic chemistry had been patented some 64 years earlier by Kuhlmann, when it was probably of only academic interest due to the lack of a significant source of ammonia. That may have still been the state of affairs in 1902, although things were due to change dramatically in the second half of the decade as a result of Haber and Bosch's work on their nitrogen fixing process (completed by 1911 or 1913). The date 1908 (six years after the patent) is often given for the invention of the Ostwald process, and it may be that these developments motivated him to do additional work to commercialize the process in that time-frame. Alternatively, six years might simply have been the bureaucratic interval between filing the patent and the time it was granted. The Ostwald process is chemical process for producing nitric acid, which was developed by Wilhelm Ostwald (patented 1902). ... The chemical compound nitric acid (HNO3), also known as aqua fortis and spirit of nitre, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen nitrate (anhydrous nitric acid). ... Fritz Haber (9 December 1868 – 29 January 1934) was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development of synthetic ammonia, important for fertilisers and explosives. ... Carl Bosch (August 27, 1874 – April 26, 1940) was a German chemist and engineer. ... General Name, symbol, number nitrogen, N, 7 Chemical series nonmetals Group, period, block 15, 2, p Appearance colorless gas Standard atomic weight 14. ... The Haber process (also known as Haber–Bosch process) is the reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen, over an iron-substrate, to produce ammonia [1] [2] [3]. The Haber process is important because ammonia is difficult to produce, on an industrial scale. ...

The combination of these two breakthroughs soon led to more economical and larger-scale production of fertilizers and explosives, of which Germany was to find itself in desperate need of during World War I. Ostwald also did significant work 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^[1]. Spreading manure, an organic fertilizer Fertilizers (also spelled fertilisers) are compounds given to plants to promote growth; they are usually applied either through the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar feeding, for uptake through leaves. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Wilhelm Ostwald’s dilution law is a relationship between the dissociation constant and the degree of dissociation of a weak electrolyte (acids, bases). ... The mole (symbol: mol) is the SI base unit that measures an amount of substance. ... This article focuses on the historical models of the atom. ... Ernst Mach Ernst Mach (February 18, 1838 – February 19, 1916) was an Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher and is the namesake for the Mach number and the optical illusion known as Mach bands. ... Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (December 5, 1868 in Königsberg, East Prussia – April 26, 1951 in Munich, Germany) was a German physicist who introduced the fine-structure constant in 1919. ... Jean Baptiste Perrin, generally known as Jean Perrin (Lille, September 30, 1870 – April 17, New York, 1942), was a French physicist. ... Three different views of Brownian motion, with 32 steps, 256 steps, and 2048 steps denoted by progressively lighter colors. ...

Jacobus van 't Hoff (left) and Wilhelm Ostwald

Ostwald was 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". Jacobus Henricus van t Hoff (August 30, 1852 - March 1, 1911) was a Dutch physical and organic chemist and the winner of the inaugural Nobel Prize in chemistry. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

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. Categories: People stubs | 1843 births | 1914 deaths | Nobel Peace Prize winners ...

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.^[2] He was also interested in the international language movement, first learning Esperanto, then later becoming an Idist.^[3] In the arts of painting, graphic design, and photography, color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impact of specific color combinations. ... Albert Henry Munsell was a painter and a teacher of art. ... “Klee” redirects here. ... De Stijl redirects here. ... Piet Mondrian, 1924 Pieter Cornelis (Piet) Mondriaan, after 1912 Mondrian, (pronounced: Dutch IPA: , later IPA: ), (March 7, 1872–February 1, 1944) was a Dutch painter. ... An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... This article is about the language. ... Ido (pronounced ) is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages. ...

He was also one of the directors of the Die Brücke institute in München.

Ostwald died in a hospital in Leipzig on April 4, 1932, and was buried at his house in Großbothen, near Leipzig. ^[4] Großbothen is a town in the Muldentalkreis district in Saxony, Germany. ... Leipzig ( ; Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk from the Sorbian word for Tilia) is, with a population of over 506,000, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. ...

Publications

• Ostwald, W. (1900). Grundriss der allgemeinen Chemie. Engelmann. 

• Ostwald, W. (1906). Process of manufacturing nitric acid. Patent. 

• Ostwald, W. (1909). Energetische Grundlagen der Kulturwissenschaft, 1st edition. 

• Couturat, L.; Jespersen O., Lorenz R., Ostwald Wilhelm, and Pfaundler L. (1910). International language and science: Considerations on the introduction of an international language into science. Constable and Company Limited. 

• Ostwald, W. (1917). Grundriss der allgemeinen Chemie, 5th edition, Steinkopff. 

See also

• Ostwald's rule

Notes

References

• 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. 

• Gorin, G. (1994). "Mole and chemical amount: A discussion of the fundamental measurements of chemistry". J. Chem. Education 71 (2). 

The Journal of the American Chemical Society (usually abbreviated as , or JACS), is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published since 1879 by the American Chemical Society. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ...

External links

• Nobel Lecture On Catalysis from Nobelprize.org website
• Biography Biography from Nobelprize.org website
• "The Origin of the Word 'Mole'". ChemTeam.
• Landsitz Energie Grossbothen/Saxony Ostwald and his country seat "Energie" (in English)
• History of the International Committee on Atomic Weights

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