Inventors: ROBERT WILHELM BUNSEN (200th Anniversary)
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (March 30, 1811-August 16, 1899) was a German chemist. He perfected the burner that was named after him, and worked on emission spectroscopy of heated elements.
Bunsen was the youngest of four sons. After attending school in Holzminden, he studied chemistry at the University of Gottingen. He received his doctorate at 19 and then, from 1830 to 1833, traveled across western Europe. During this time, he met Runge, the discoverer of aniline, Justus von Liebig in Giessen, and Mitscherlich in Bonn.
After his return to Germany, Bunsen became a lecturer at Gottingen and began experimental studies of the (in)solubility of metal salts of arsenious acid. Today, his discovery of the use of iron oxide hydrate as a precipitating agent is still the best known antidote against arsenic poisoning.
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