John Kunkel
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VOL. 7, NO. G THE CHEMISTRY STUDENT 1387 and as labels for the tubes. The vertical support, which is hung on the wall, is ten by fifty-two inches. Model Illustrating Chamber Process for Sulfuric Acid The chamber process for the manufacture of sulfuric acid is described in practically all texts on general chemistry and diagrammed in most of them. Nevertheless, we have found a diagrammatic model of considerable aid in class discussions of the process. The lead chamber is made of thin sheet iron (6" X 5" X Z1/2"). Con- necting pipes are of brass tubing, one-half inch in diameter. The Glover tower is six and one-half inches high and two and one-quarter inches in diameter, and the Gay-Lussac tower nine inches high and two and one- half inches in diameter. Blow cases are made of steel, three inches long, and one inch in diameter. The assembled unit is mounted on a wooden base thirty-one inches long and tweuty-two inches wide. John Kunkel. Three hundred years ag-it was in 1630, but we confess with humility our ignorance concerning the day or even the manth-there was born in the Duchy of Schleswig one John Kunkel, alchemist, chemist, and pharmacist, who, like Bayle, valiantly attacked the duplicity and charlatanism with which the "science" of transmutation had become as-iated. "He was scornful of the theories of the adepts," says Sir Edward Thorpe. "and contemptuous d their lrie firima." An alchemist, neverfheless, he could invent a quaint name for the alkahest-"Alles Liigen ist." Apart, however, from his alchemical study and c r i t i c i s ~ he devoted himself in particu- lar to the orocesses of the manufacture of glass and to the assaving of metals. When . - twenty-nine years of age he held the post of chemist and chief apothecary to the Dukes of Lauenburg, whence he was later called to be superintendent of the laboratory of the Elector of Saxony; he next went to Berlin, entering the service of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, and finally to Stockholm, where Charles X I accorded him the title Counselor of Metals, and ennobled him as Baron von Gwenstern. It was a t Stockholm that Kunkel died in 1702. Despite his important contributions to glass technology (in the manufacture of ruby glass), metallurgy (in the separation of gold and silver), organic chemistry, and the processes of fermentation, Kunkel is probably best remembered on account of his connection with the discovery of phosphorus. First prepared by Brand in 1669, phosphorus was a t that time, of course, a remarkable curiosity. It appears that one Kraft, a friend of Kunkel, somewhat treacherously forestalled the latter in obtaining sole possession (for a financial consideration) of the secret of its manufacture; hence Kunkel's successful preparation deserves to be re- garded practically as an independent discovery, for his only information was the source from which Brand had obtained the new element. In 1678 he published a treatise on "phosphorus mirabilis," and even proposed its internal medicinal use in pills. Dr. Thomas Thomson remarks that Kunkel's most valuable work, his treatise an glass making.remained until nearly the end of the eighteenth century by far the best account of that art in existence. Of his posthumous work, "Laboratory chymicum." Thomson says: "It must have been valuable, as it was the work from which Scheele derived the first rudiments of his knowledge."-Chem. b Ind.
Transcript of John Kunkel
VOL. 7, NO. G THE CHEMISTRY STUDENT 1387
and as labels for the tubes. The vertical support, which is hung on the wall, is ten by fifty-two inches.
Model Illustrating Chamber Process for Sulfuric Acid
The chamber process for the manufacture of sulfuric acid is described in practically all texts on general chemistry and diagrammed in most of them. Nevertheless, we have found a diagrammatic model of considerable aid in class discussions of the process.
The lead chamber is made of thin sheet iron (6" X 5" X Z1/2"). Con- necting pipes are of brass tubing, one-half inch in diameter. The Glover tower is six and one-half inches high and two and one-quarter inches in diameter, and the Gay-Lussac tower nine inches high and two and one- half inches in diameter. Blow cases are made of steel, three inches long, and one inch in diameter. The assembled unit is mounted on a wooden base thirty-one inches long and tweuty-two inches wide.
John Kunkel. Three hundred years ag-it was in 1630, but we confess with humility our ignorance concerning the day or even the manth-there was born in the Duchy of Schleswig one John Kunkel, alchemist, chemist, and pharmacist, who, like Bayle, valiantly attacked the duplicity and charlatanism with which the "science" of transmutation had become as-iated. "He was scornful of the theories of the adepts," says Sir Edward Thorpe. "and contemptuous d their lrie firima." An alchemist, neverfheless, he could invent a quaint name for the alkahest-"Alles Liigen ist." Apart, however, from his alchemical study and c r i t i c i s ~ he devoted himself in particu- lar to the orocesses of the manufacture of glass and to the assaving of metals. When . -
twenty-nine years of age he held the post of chemist and chief apothecary to the Dukes of Lauenburg, whence he was later called to be superintendent of the laboratory of the Elector of Saxony; he next went to Berlin, entering the service of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, and finally to Stockholm, where Charles X I accorded him the title Counselor of Metals, and ennobled him as Baron von Gwenstern. It was a t Stockholm that Kunkel died in 1702. Despite his important contributions to glass technology (in the manufacture of ruby glass), metallurgy (in the separation of gold and silver), organic chemistry, and the processes of fermentation, Kunkel is probably best remembered on account of his connection with the discovery of phosphorus. First prepared by Brand in 1669, phosphorus was a t that time, of course, a remarkable curiosity. I t appears that one Kraft, a friend of Kunkel, somewhat treacherously forestalled the latter in obtaining sole possession (for a financial consideration) of the secret of its manufacture; hence Kunkel's successful preparation deserves to be re- garded practically as an independent discovery, for his only information was the source from which Brand had obtained the new element. In 1678 he published a treatise on "phosphorus mirabilis," and even proposed its internal medicinal use in pills. Dr. Thomas Thomson remarks that Kunkel's most valuable work, his treatise an glass making.remained until nearly the end of the eighteenth century by far the best account of that art in existence. Of his posthumous work, "Laboratory chymicum." Thomson says: "It must have been valuable, as it was the work from which Scheele derived the first rudiments of his knowledge."-Chem. b Ind.
