Karlsruhe Congress Explained

The Karlsruhe Congress was an international meeting of chemists organized by August Kekulé and held in Karlsruhe, Germany from 3 to 5 September 1860. It was the first international conference of chemistry with 140 participants.

The conference is known for the adoption of atomic weights in chemistry motivated by the participation of Stanislao Cannizzaro. During the congress he showed evidence using Avogadro's hypothesis, that certain gases were not made of atoms but of diatomic molecules.

It has been argued[1] that the Karlsruhe meeting was the first international meeting of chemists and that it led to the eventual founding of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Organization and invitation

The Karlsruhe Congress was called so that European chemists could discuss matters of chemical nomenclature, notation, and atomic weights. The organization, invitation, and sponsorship of the conference were handled by August Kekulé, Adolphe Wurtz, and Karl Weltzien.[2] As an example of the problems facing the delegates, Kekulé's Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie gave nineteen different formulas used by chemists for acetic acid, as shown in the figure on this page.[3] [4]

An understanding was reached on the time and place of the meeting, and printing of a circular addressed to European chemists listed below, which explained the objectives and goals of an international congress was agreed upon. The circular concluded: "...with the aim of avoiding any unfortunate omissions, the undersigned request that the individuals to whom this circular will be sent please communicate it to their scientist friends who are duly authorized to attend the planned conference."[5] The circular of the conference was sent to:

!Country!City !Scientists
AustriaInnsbruckHeinrich Hlasiwetz
ViennaAnton Schrötter von Kristelli
Leopold von Pebal
BelgiumBrusselsJean Servais Stas
GhentFriedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz
FranceParisAnselme Payen
Antoine Bussy
Antoine Jérôme Balard
Auguste André Thomas Cahours
Charles Adolphe Wurtz
Edmond Frémy
Eugéne-Melchior Péligot
Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville
Henri Victor Regnault
Jean-Baptiste Boussingault
Jean-Baptiste Dumas
Louis Pasteur
Théophile-Jules Pelouze.
RennesFaustino Malaguti
GermanyBerlinEilhard Mitscherlich
Freiburg im BreisgauLambert Henrich von Babo
Geissen
Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp
GöttingenFriedrich Wöhler
HeidelbergRobert Bunsen
KarlsruheKarl Weltzien
LeipzigOtto Linné Erdmann
MunichJustus von Liebig
StuttgartHermann von Fehling
TübingenAdolph Strecker
ItalyGenovaStanislao Cannizzaro
TurinRaffaele Piria
RussiaKasanNikolay Nikolayevich Beketov
St. PetersburgAlexander Nikolayevich Engelhardt
Carl Julius Fritzsche
Nikolai Nikolaevich Sokolov[6]
Nikolay Nikolaevich Zinin
SwitzerlandGenevaJean Charles Galissard de Marignac
ZurichGeorg Andreas Karl Staedeler
United KingdomLondonAlexander William Williamson
August Wilhelm von Hofmann
Sir Edward Frankland
William Odling
ManchesterHenry Enfield Roscoe
OxfordSir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 2nd Baronet
Of the above, only 20 of 45 attended.[7]

Meeting

First two days

The congress opened in the assembly hall of the Baden Parliament the 3th September, with Weltzien serving as the general secretary. In his address, he highlighted the international and discipline-specific nature of the meeting. Kekulé delivered an opening address. Wurtz documented the proceedings for future publication. A dinner for 120 people was held in the museum hall.[8] [9]

The next day, the assembly, led by Weltzien, discussed the committee's proposed theme of the day before regarding the disputed meanings of "atom," "molecule," and "equivalence." However, no conclusions were reached, leading the committee to meet twice on the same day. They decided to present three specific nomenclature proposals to the assembly for further consideration.

Last day

The Karlsruhe meeting started with no firm agreement on the vexing problem of atomic and molecular weights. However, on the meeting's last day reprints of Stanislao Cannizzaro's 1858 paper on atomic weights,[10] in which he utilized earlier work by Amedeo Avogadro and André-Marie Ampère, were distributed. Cannizzaro's efforts exerted a heavy and, in some cases, an almost immediate influence on the delegates. Lothar Meyer later wrote that on reading Cannizzaro's paper,[11] [12]

An important long-term result of the Karlsruhe Congress was the adoption of the now-familiar atomic weights. Prior to the Karlsruhe meeting, and going back to John Dalton's work in 1803, several systems of atomic weights were in use.[13] In one case, a value of 1 was adopted as the weight of hydrogen (the base unit), with 6 for carbon and 8 for oxygen. As long as there were uncertainties over atomic weights then the compositions of many compounds remained in doubt. Following the Karlsruhe meeting, values of about 1 for hydrogen, 12 for carbon, 16 for oxygen, and so forth were adopted. This was based on a recognition that certain elements, such as hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, were composed of diatomic molecules and not individual atoms.

Attendance

The number of people who wanted to participate was considerable, and on 3 September 1860, 140 chemists met together in the meeting room of the second Chamber of State, which was made available by the Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden.

According to Wurtz, the printed list of members, supplemented by handwritten additions, contains 126 names listed below.[14]

!Country!City!Scientists
AustriaInnsbruckHlasiwetz
LembergPebal
PesthTh. Wertheim
Vienna
A. Lieben
Folwarezny (Carl Folwarezny[15])
F. Schneider
BelgiumBrusselsJ. Stas
Ghent
A. Kekulé
FranceMontpellierA. Béchamp
A. Gautier
C. G. Reischauer[16]
MulhouseTh. Schneider[17]
Nancy
ParisBoussingault
J-B. Dumas
C. Friedel
Le Canu (Louis René Le Canu[18] 1800–1871)
Persoz
Alf. Riche (Jean Baptiste Leopold Alfred Riche[19] 1829-1908)
Verdet
C.-A. Wurtz
StrasbourgJacquemin (Eugène Théodore Jacquemin[20] 1828–1909)
Oppermann (Charles Oppermann[21] 1805-1872)
F. Schlagdenhaussen (Frédéric Charles Schlagdenhauffen[22] 1830–1907)
P. Schützenberger
Tann
Scheurer-Kestner
GermanyBerlin
G. Quinke
BonnH. Landolt
BreslauLothar Meyer
KasselGuckelberger
Klausthal
DarmstadtE. Winckler
Erlangenv. Gorup-Besanez
Freiburg i. B.
Schneyder (Woldemar Alexander Adolph von Schneider[23] 1843–1914)
GiessenBoeckmann (Emil Boeckmann[24])
GöttingenF. Beilstein
Halle a. S.W. Heintz
HanoverHeeren
HeidelbergBecker
O. Braun
E. Erlenmeyer
O. Mendius
Schiel (Jacob Heinrich Wilhelm Schiel[25] 1813-1889)
Jena
H. Ludwig[26]
KarlsruheA. Klemm
R. Muller
K. Seubert (Karl Seubert[27] 1815–1868)
Weltzien
Leipzig
Kuhn
MannheimGundelach (Carl Gundelach[28] [29])
Schroeder
Marburg a. L.R. Schmidt
MunichGeiger (Friedrich Geiger[30] 1833-1889)
Nurembergv. Bibra
OffenbachGrimm[31]
RappenauFinck
SchönbergR. Hoffmann (Gustav Reinhold Hoffmann[32] 1831-1919)
SpeyerKeller (Franz Keller[33])
Mühlhaüser (Albert Mühlhaüser[34])
Stuttgartv. Fehling
W. Hallwachs
TübingenFinckh (Karl Finckh[35] [36] von Winterbach)
A. Strecker
Wiesbaden
WürzburgScherer
V. Schwarzenbach (Valentin Schwarzenbach[37] 1830-1890)
ItalyGenoaCannizzaro
PaviaPavesi (Angelo Pavesi[38])
MexicoPosselt (Louis Posselt 1817-1880 brother of)
PortugalCoimbraMide Carvalho (Mathias de Carvalho e Vasconcellos[39] 1832-1910)
RussiaKharkov
St. PetersburgBorodin Mendelyeev
Zinin
Warsaw
Jakub Natanson
SwedenHarpendenJ. H. Gilbert
LundBerlin
C. W. Blomstrand
Stockholm
SwitzerlandBern
H. Schiff
Geneva C. Marignac
LausanneBischoff (Henri Bischoff[40] 1813–1889)
Reichenau bei Chur
ZurichJ. Wislicenus
SpainMadrid
United KingdomDublinApjohn A.
EdingburghAl. Crum Brown
Wanklyn
F. Guthrie
GlasgowAnderson
LondonB. F. Duppa (Baldwin Francis Duppa[41] 1828–1873)
G. C. Foster
Gladstone
Noad
A. Normandy
Odling
ManchesterRoscoe
OxfordDaubeny
G. Griffeth (G. Griffith[42])
F. Schickendantz
WoolwichAbel

References

  1. Ihde, Aaron J. . 1961 . The Karlsruhe Congress: A Centennial Retrospective . Journal of Chemical Education . 38 . 2 . 83–86 . 1961JChEd..38...83I . 10.1021/ed038p83. (subscription required)
  2. Book: Leicester, Henry M. . The Historical Background of Chemistry . John Wiley and Sons . 1956 . 191–192 . 978-0-486-61053-5 .
  3. Book: Kekulé, A. . Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie …, vol. 1 . Ferdinand Enke . Erlangen, (Germany) . 1861 . 58 . de .
  4. The French chemist Auguste Laurent also listed many different contemporary representations of acetic acid (acide acétique) in his book: Book: Laurent. Auguste. Méthode de Chimie. 1854. Mallet-Bachelier. Paris, France. 27–28. fr.
  5. Web site: Charles-Adolphe Wurtz. web.lemoyne.edu. 2019-07-01.
  6. Brooks . Nathan M. . 1995-11-01 . Russian chemistry in the 1850s: A failed attempt at institutionalization . Annals of Science . 52 . 6 . 577–589 . 10.1080/00033799500200411 . 0003-3790.
  7. de Milt . Clara . 1951 . The Congress at Karlsruhe . Journal of Chemical Education . en . 28 . 8 . 421 . 10.1021/ed028p421 . 0021-9584.
  8. Mönnich . Michael W. . 2010 . Thriving for Unity in Chemistry: The First International Gathering of Chemists . Chemistry International . 32 . 6.
  9. Mönnich . Michael . 2010 . ”Für unsere schöne Wissenschaft eine Einigung anzubahnen“ . Nachrichten aus der Chemie . en . 58 . 5 . 539–543 . 10.1002/nadc.201071445 . 1439-9598.
  10. See:
  11. Book: Moore, F. J. . A History of Chemistry . McGraw-Hill . 1931 . 978-0-07-148855-6 . 182–184 . registration. (2nd edition)
  12. Cannizzaro, Stanislao (1891) with Arthur Miolati, trans., and Lothar Meyer, ed. Abriss eines Lehrganges der theoretischen Chemie [Outline of a Course of Theoretical Chemistry] (Leipzig, (Germany): Wilhelm Engelmann, 1891), p. 59. On p. 59, Lothmar Meyer wrote: "Nach Schluss der Versammlung vertheilte Freund Angelo Pavesi im Auftrage des Verfassers eine kleine ziemlich unscheinbare Schrift, den hier wiedergegeben "Sunto" etc. Cannizzaro's, der schon einige Jahre früher erschienen, aber wenig bekannt geworden war. Auch ich erhielt ein Exemplar, das ich einsteckte, um es unterwegs auf der Heimreise zu lesen. Ich las es wiederholt auch zu Hause und war erstaunt über die Klarheit, die das Schriftchen über die wichtigsten Streitpunkte verbreitete. Es fiel mir wie Schuppen von den Augen, die Zweifel schwanden, und das Gefühl ruhigster Sicherheit trat an ihre Stelle." (At the conclusion of the meeting, friend Angelo Pavesi, on behalf of the author, distributed a small, inconspicuous pamphlet, Cannizzaro's "Sunto" etc. [which is] reproduced here [Note: "Sunto" refers to: Stanislao Cannizzaro (1858) [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433062756915;view=1up;seq=331 "Lettera del Prof. Stanislao Cannizzaro al Prof. S. de Luca; Sunto di un corso di filosofia chimica fatto nella Reale Università di Genova dal Professore S. Cannizzaro,"] Il Nuovo Cimento, 7 : 321–366.], which had appeared a few years earlier but has been little known. I too received a copy, which I pocketed to read on the way home. I also read it at home repeatedly and was amazed at the clarity that the pamphlet spread about the main issues. It was as if the scales fell from my eyes, the doubts faded, and the feeling of calmest assurance took its place.)
  13. An example of the confusion is provided by the table of atomic weights in the various prevailing systems, which appears in: Book: Gehler. Johann Samuel Traugott. Gmelin. Littrow. Muncke. Pfaff. Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler's Physikalisches Wörterbuch, 9. Band, 3. Abtheilung. Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler's Physical Dictionary, vol. 9, part 3. 1840. E.B. Schwickert. Leipzig, (Germany). 1909–1912. de. In the tables of pages 1911–1912, Column C presents the relative atomic weights of the known elements, assigning to hydrogen (Wasserstoff) an atomic weight of 1. Column D contains the same relative atomic weights as column C, except that oxygen (Sauerstoff) is assigned a relative atomic weight of 100. (Gehler says of columns C and D: "In den Columnen C und D finden sich die Atomgewichte, wie sie sich nach den so eben entwickelten Grundsätzen als die wahrscheinlichsten ergeben möchten, … " (In columns C and D are found the atomic weights, as they would result from the principles [that have been] developed just now as the most probable ones …) But this system assigns to oxygen an atomic weight of 8 and to carbon (Kohlenstoff) an atomic weight of 6.) Column E presents the relative atomic weights according to Berzelius, who assigned to hydrogen atoms (das Atomgewicht des einfachen Wasserstoffatoms (the atomic weight of single hydrogen atoms)) a value of 0.5 and who found oxygen to have a value of 8.01 — about 16 times greater than that of the hydrogen atom, which is correct. Column F contains the same relative atomic weights as column E, except that oxygen is assigned a relative atomic weight of 100.
  14. Web site: Charles-Adolphe Wurtz. web.lemoyne.edu. 2019-06-18.
  15. Book: Oesterreichisch-ungarischer Ordens-Almanach . 1876 . Sommer . de.
  16. Book: Archiv Der Pharmazie: Chemistry in Life Sciences . 1865 . Wiley-Blackwell . de.
  17. Book: Jahresberichte über die leistungen der chemischen technologie . 1866 . O. Wigand . de.
  18. Web site: Le CanuLouis-René Études chimiques sur le Sang Humain. Thèse. . 2019-06-24 . www.medicusbooks.com.
  19. Book: Figurovskii . N. A. . Aleksandr Porfir'evich Borodin: A Chemist's Biography . Solov'ev . Yu I. . 2012-12-06 . Springer Science & Business Media . 9783642727320.
  20. Web site: Eugène Jacquemin (1828–1909) . 2019-06-24 . data.bnf.fr.
  21. Book: Nationalizing Science: Adolphe Wurtz and the Battle for French Chemistry . 8 November 2000 . MIT Press . 9780262264297.
  22. Web site: Frédéric Charles Schlagdenhauffen . 2019-06-27 . geni_family_tree.
  23. Web site: Woldemar Alexander Adolph von Schneider . 2019-07-11 . geni_family_tree . en-US.
  24. Boeckmann . Emil . 1837-01-01 . Ueber einige Doppelverbindungen von Cyanquecksilber mit Schwefelcyan‐Metallen . Annalen der Pharmacie . 22 . 2 . 153–158 . 10.1002/jlac.18370220205.
  25. Book: Partington, J. R. . History of Chemistry . 1964-06-18 . Macmillan International Higher Education . 9781349005543.
  26. Web site: [Earliest: (01/01/1846 TO 12/31/1930)] AND [Author: Ludwig H] : Search ]. 2019-07-11 . onlinelibrary.wiley.com . en.
  27. Web site: handbuch der allgemeinen waarenkunde von seubert karl – ZVAB . 2019-07-13 . www.zvab.com.
  28. Book: Ärzte, Versammlung Deutscher Naturforscher und . Tageblatt der Versammlung Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte . 1861 . de.
  29. Book: Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft . 1878 . Verlag Chemie. . de.
  30. Book: Brock, William H. . Justus Von Liebig: The Chemical Gatekeeper . 2002-06-20 . Cambridge University Press . 9780521524735 . en.
  31. Book: Ärzte, Versammlung Deutscher Naturforscher und . Tageblatt der Versammlung Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte . 1861 . de.
  32. Book: Fruton, Joseph Stewart . Contrasts in Scientific Style: Research Groups in the Chemical and Biochemical Sciences . 1990 . American Philosophical Society . 9780871691910 . 282 . en . Gustav Reinhold Hoffmann (1831–1919)..
  33. Book: Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie . 1859 . C.F. Winter'sche . de.
  34. Book: Ärzte, Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und . Tageblatt der Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte . 1861 . de.
  35. Book: Hermann . Armin . Physik physiologische Chemie und Pharmazie an der Universität Tübingen . Wankmüller . Armin . 1980 . Franz Steiner Verlag . 9783164428019 . de.
  36. Book: Archiv for Pharmacie Og Technisk Chemie Med Deres Grundvidenskaber . 1864 . da.
  37. Book: Buchner, Max . Aus der Vergangenheit der Universität Würzburg: Festschrift Zum 350 Jährigen Bestehen der Universität . 2014-01-13 . Springer-Verlag . 9783642995781 . de.
  38. Book: McDonald . Donald . A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals . Hunt . Leslie B. . 1982-01-01 . Johnson Matthey Plc . 9780905118833.
  39. Book: Formosinho, Sebastião J. . Nos Bastidores da Ciência: 20 anos depois . 2007-08-01 . Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra / Coimbra University Press . 9789898074096 . pt.
  40. Web site: Bischoff Henri . 2019-06-27 . hls-dhs-dss.ch . fr.
  41. Web site: Archives . The National . The Discovery Service . 2019-06-24 . discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
  42. Book: Gadd . Ian Anders . History of Oxford University Press: Volume II: 1780 to 1896 . Eliot . Simon . Louis . William Roger . Robbins . Keith . November 2013 . OUP Oxford . 9780199543151.

Further reading

(Note the incorrect spelling of Weltzien's name.)

(Originally published in 1964.)

(Note the incorrect month given for the conference.)

External links