Adolph Ferdinand Gehlen Explained

Birth Date:	5 September 1775
Birth Place:	Bütow, Farther Pomerania (now Bytów, Poland)
Death Place:	Munich
Nationality:	German
Alma Mater:	University of Königsberg

Adolph Ferdinand Gehlen (5 September 1775 – 16 July 1815) was a German chemist.

Life and education

Gehlen was born in Bütow, Farther Pomerania (now Bytów, Poland), he is known as the publisher of Neues allgemeines Journal der Chemie (1803–1806), Journal für Chemie und Physik (1806-10) and the Repetitorium für die Pharmacie (first series; later continued by Johann Andreas Buchner).

In 1804, he noticed that when a solution of uranium chloride in ether was exposed to sunlight, it quickly changed colour from bright yellow to green and precipitated.^[1]

He studied at the University of Königsberg and obtained his residency in 1806 from the University of Halle, where he worked as a chemist in the clinical institute of Johann Christian Reil. From 1807 to 1815, he served as an academic chemist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. He died from arsenic poisoning in Munich on 16 July 1815, age 39.^[2]

References

Sources

Gehlen, Adolf Ferdinand

Notes and References

1. A. F. Gehlen (1804) "Ueber die Farbenveränderungen der in Aether aufgelösten salzsauren Metallsalze durch das Sonnenlicht" (On the color changes, via sunlight, of metal chlorides dissolved in ether), Neues allgemeines Journal der Chemie (New General Journal of Chemistry), 3 (5) : 566–574. From page 569: "Eine Auflösung von reinem salzsauren Uran wurde so weit abgedampft, daß sie in der Kälte ein trockenes Salz gab. Dieses wurde in einem Glase in absolutem Aether aufgelöst. Die schön citrongelbe Auflösung in einem ganz damit gefüllten Glase den Sonnenstrahlen ausgesetzt, wurde schon in einigen Sekunden verändert: sie wurde grünlich trübe und es schied sich ein schmutzig grüner Niederschlag aus, … " (A solution of pure uranium chloride was so thoroughly evaporated that it gave a dry salt in the cold [air of the lab]. This was dissolved in a glass of absolute [i.e., pure] ether. The beautiful lemon yellow solution, which quite filled the glass and was exposed to the sun's rays, was changed in just some seconds: it became a cloudy green and there precipitated a dirty green precipitate, …)
2. https://books.google.com/books?id=GbX8REu4UeQC&dq=%22Gehlen%2C+Adolph+Ferdinand%22+1775&pg=PA224 The Formation of the German Chemical Community, 1720-1795