Böttger, Rudolph Christian

(b. Aschersleben, Germany, 28 April 1806; d. Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 29 April 1881)

chemistry.

Böttger entered the University of Halle in 1824 to study theology. Despite the time devoted to theology and philosophy, he regularly attended the chemistry lectures of Johann S. C. Schweigger, thus fulfilling a youthful ambition to study chemistry.

On leaving the university in 1828, he continued his interest in chemistry while employed as a tutor, corresponding with Schweigger and pursuing a program of research in his spare time. By 1835 he had published a dozen papers in the leading German chemical periodicals. In that year, he was called to the Physicalischer Verein at Frankfurt am Main, where he taught physics and chemistry for the rest of his long, active life. In 1837 he received the doctorate from the University of Halle, and in 1841 he married Christiane Harpke.

Böttger’s interests in chemistry were far-reaching, and he was particularly interested in practical applications of research. For example, he invented a useful kindling apparatus modified from Schönbein’s lamp, and in 1841 he developed an electroforming process for reproducing illustrations which was widely used.

Böttger showed in 1843 that nickel could be plated on other metals by electrodeposition, although the technology of the times was insufficient for commercial use, and in 1845 he produced high-purity iron by electrolytic deposition.

Böttger has been credited with the independent discovery of guncotton, first announced by Schönbein in March 1846. He had collaborated with Heinrich Will at Giessen on styphnic (hydroxypicric) acid and was able to advise Schönbein in July 1846 that the preparation of guncotton could be improved by use of a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acid.

Shortly after Anton Schrötter discovered red phosphorus in 1847, Böttger introduced match heads covered with a mixture of potassium chlorate, red lead, and a gum, to be used on match boxes whose striking surfaces were coated with red phosphorus.

Böttger investigated silver and copper acetylides, chrome alum, chromic oxide, and lampic acid. He devised tests for nitrites and chlorates still used today. He also studied the reduction of palladous chloride, and the chemistry of indium, thallium, and cesium.

Böttger was an able chemist, a “skillful experimenter whose tact in manipulation is well known” (Jerome Nicklès, “Corrspondence 1858”). His work, mainly qualitative, was ingenious and accurate. He rarely pursued a particular topic in depth, turning instead to the other aspects of chemistry that intrigued him, nor was he prone to hypothesize or to frame chemical theories, preferring instead the daily routine of laboratory experimentation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Böttger wrote more than one hundred papers. Convenient but incomplete lists may be found in Poggendorff, Biographisch-literarisches Handwörterbuch, I (1963), 150–151; and in the Royal Society’s Catalogue of Scientific Papers, X (1867), 508–511; VII (1877), 223–224; IX, 303. In 1846 he founded the Polytechnisches Notizblatt and edited it for 35 years. One of his major works was the three-volume Beiträge zur Physik und Chemie (Frank-furt am Main, 1838–1846).

II. Secondary Literature. Theodor Petersen gives a brief description of Böttger’s life and work in Berichte der Chemischen Gesellschaft, 14 (1881), 2913–2919. Robert Knott’s biography in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, XLVII, 143–144, is based on Petersen. J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry, IV (London, 1964), 196, gives a concise summary of Böttger’s work. See also Jerome Nicklès, “Correspondence of Jerome Nicklès, Dated Paris, Oct. 26th, 1858,” in American Journal of Science, 27 (1859), no. 79, 121. There is no detailed study of Böttger’s life.

Louis I. Kuslan