Edmund Oscar von Lippmann
Encyclopedia
Edmund Oscar von Lippmann [also Edmund Oskar von Lippmann] (Vienna January 9, 1857 - Halle September 24, 1940) was a German chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

 and natural science historian.

He studied at the ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....

 and obtained a doctorate in 1878 under Robert Bunsen
Robert Bunsen
Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium and rubidium with Gustav Kirchhoff. Bunsen developed several gas-analytical methods, was a pioneer in photochemistry, and did early work in the field of organoarsenic...

 at Heidelberg University. Lippmann ran large sugar refineries
Sugar refinery
A sugar refinery is a factory which refines raw sugar.Many cane sugar mills produce raw sugar, i.e. sugar with more colour and therefore more impurities than the white sugar which is normally consumed in households and used as an ingredient in soft drinks, cookies and so forth...

, in Duisburg
Duisburg
- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

 and later in Halle
Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...

. During this phase of his career he was granted the title of professor in 1901. In 1904, Lippmann founded the Berlin Sugar Museum
Sugar Museum (Berlin)
The Sugar Museum in Berlin, devoted to the history and technology of sugar, is the oldest such museum in the world, having opened in 1904. It is now part of the German Museum of Technology and is housed in the Institut für Lebensmitteltechnologie in Wedding in Mitte.Exhibits are labelled in German...

, still open today. From 1926-1933, he taught as a volunteer at Martin Luther University in Halle. In 1935, under the new Nazi regime he was stripped of the authority to teach because of his Jewish ancestry.

In 1878 Lippmann published his first edition of what would become a reference monograph on sugar chemistry in his time. The 3rd edition of this work, published in 1904 in two volumes was 2000 pages long and attempted to cover every aspect of what had become a vast field. A contemporary review in Science
Science (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....

noted that "With a modesty as as charming as it is rare, he states in his preface: 'Completeness could not be attained in any direction', and yet this work is the most throughout of all works ever published on the chemistry of sugars", concluding that it was "rivaled by few, excelled by none".

In 1890 Lippmann wrote an extremely detailed and influential history of sugar processing, Geschichte des Zuckers: seiner Darstellung und Verwendung, seit den ältesten Zeiten bis zum Beginn der Rübenzucker Fabrikation (History of sugar from the ancient times until the beginning of beet sugar production). To make it more accessible, he wrote an abridged version in 1894, which was also translated in French. In 1929 he published an updated version of his initial volume (824 pp). Although an influential work in its day, 21st century scholars found it to be misleading with respect to sugar production in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

.

Lippmann also wrote extensively on the history of alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

, from the perspective of it being a forerunner of chemistry rather than more philosophical considerations. His three-volume Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie (Origin and propagation of Alchemy) is considered to contain the most detailed account of Greek alchemy, superseding earlier accounts of M. Berthelot
Marcellin Berthelot
Marcelin Pierre Eugène Berthelot was a French chemist and politician noted for the Thomsen-Berthelot principle of thermochemistry. He synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substances and disproved the theory of vitalism. He is considered as one of the greatest chemists of all time.He...

 and C. Ruelle in accuracy. In 1920, George Sarton
George Sarton
George Sarton was a Belgian chemist and historian who is considered the founder of the discipline of history of science. He left Belgium because of the First World War and settled in the United States where he spent the rest of his life researching and writing about the history of science...

 wrote in his review of the first volume that it was a "truly monumental work, the greatest single addition to our knowledge of ancient chemistry (and also to our knowledge of human superstition) since the days of Kopp
Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp
Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp , German chemist, was born at Hanau, where his father, Johann Heinrich Kopp , a physician, was professor of chemistry, physics and natural history at the local lyceum....

". In a review of the 1931 volume, Sarton warned that the portion dealing with Arabic materials was of lesser quality than the rest, particularly with respect to spelling of Arabic names. Yet more recent reevaluations point to some deficiencies in citation style that make the text difficult to follow back to primary sources. More compact accounts have been written since.

For his writings he was awarded a couple honoris causa doctorates from German universities, as well as the Leibniz Medal and the Sudhoff Medal.

Publications by E. O. von Lippmann

  • Die Zuckerarten und ihre Derivate, 1878, revised as Die Chemie der Zuckerarten, 1885, 1904
  • Geschichte des Zuckers, 1890, 1929
  • Abhandlungen und Vortäge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft
    Natural science
    The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...

    , 2 Vol., 1906-1913
  • Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie, 3 Vols., 1919, 1931, 1954
  • Zeittafeln zur Geschichte der organischen Chemie, 1921
  • Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft und der Technik, 2 Vols., 1923
  • Guntwin Bruhns (Hrsg.), Aus den Lebenserinnerungen von E. O. von Lippmann. In: Zuckerindustrie 107. bis 119. Jg., 1982–1994.

Further reading

  • J. R. Partington
    J. R. Partington
    James Riddick Partington MBE was a British chemist and historian of chemistry.- Life and work :Partington was born in Bolton, Lancashire and was educated at the University of Manchester, where he obtained First Class Honours...

    , "Edmund O. von Lippmann", Osiris
    Osiris (journal)
    Osiris is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research in the history of science. It is published by the University of Chicago Press and was established in 1936 by George Sarton....

    , Vol. 3, (1937), pp. 4-21,
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