Background

Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was born on February 8, 1794, in Billwarder, near Hamburg, Germany. He was the son of a pastor and the third of seven children.

Education

Runge studied chemistry and medicine at the University of Jena, Germany, under J. W. Döbereiner, an adviser to the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He took his medical degree at the University of Jena in 1819. His dissertation dealt with the physiological action of the belladonna alkaloids. Runge then went to the University of Berlin, where he received his doctorate in chemistry in 1822.

Career

At the age of fifteen Runge was apprenticed to an apothecary in Lubeck. After taking his doctorate’s degree from the University of Berlin, after three years of travel across Europe, visiting chemical factories and laboratories, Runge became Privatdozent at the University of Breslau. In 1828 he was appointed extraordinary professor of technical chemistry at the University of Breslau until 1831.

In 1831 Runge moved to Berlin and was offered a position as a chemist in a chemical factory at Oranienburg owned by the Royal Maritime Society. In this industrial laboratory, he carried out his important study of synthetic dyes. Through the distillation of coal tar and subsequent extraction of the fractions, Runge isolated and named carbolic acid (phenol), leucol (a mixture of quinoline, isoquinoline, and quinaldine), pyrrol, and" cyanol (aniline). He also produced aniline black from cyanol. noted its value as a dye, and obtained a patent in 1834.

After retiring from the chemical firm in 1852, Runge worked as a consultant until his death.

Achievements

• 

  Runge's major achievement was in becoming a pioneer in the use of paper chromatography. In the course of his research on synthetic dyes, he isolated and named several important components of coal-tar oil, among them carbolic acid (now called phenol), pyrrole, rosolic acid (aurin), and cyanol (aniline). He did not analyze any of these compounds, however. Runge described his pioneering use of paper chromatography in two books published in 1850. He also noted the ability of belladonna to induce long-lasting dilation of the pupil of the eye (mydriasis), and he developed a process for obtaining sugar from beet juice.
  
  Also, in 1855, he was the first to notice the phenomenon of Liesegang rings, observing them in the course of experiments on the precipitation of reagents in blotting paper.
  
  He published two books in 1850 explaining this technique of analysis: volume III of Farbenchetnie and Zur Farbenchetnie: Musterbilder fur Freunde des Schonen… The latter contained a collection of chromatograms showing concentric zones of different substances present in a solution that had radiated from the spot of application.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Neueste Phytochemische Entdeckungen Zur Begrundung Einer Wissenschaftlichen Phytochemie

    (Volume 1)

    1821
  • Der Bildungstrieb der Stoffe 1855
  • The Discovery of a New Formative Force 1834
  • Farbenchemie, Erster Theil 1850
  • De Pigmento Indico Eiusque Connubiis Cum Metallorum Non-nullorum Oxydis 1855
  • Resultate Chemischer Untersuchungen Der Cynareen, Eupatorinen, Radiaten, Cichoreen, Aggregaten, Valerianeen Und Caprifolien In Auffindung Und ... Eigenthümlichen Stoffes 1828
  • Der Bildungstrieb Der Stoffe: Veranschaulicht in Selbststa Ndig Gewachsenen Bildern 1855
  • Grundlehren Der Chemie Fu R Jedermann: Besonders Fu R Aerzte, Apotheker, Landwirthe, Fabrikanten Und Gewerbtreibende Und Alle Diejenigen Welche in ... Sich Erwerben Wollen 1843
  • Einleitung In Die Technische Chemie Fuer Jedermann 1836
  • Lehrbuch der praktischen Baumwollendruckerei nach chemischen Grundsatzen 1842

Views

Quotations: "After Goethe had expressed to me his greatest satisfaction regarding the account of the man (whom I’d) rescued (from serving in Napoleon’s army) by apparent “black star” (i.e., amaurosis, blindness) as well as the other, he handed me a carton of coffee beans, which a Greek had sent him as a delicacy. “You can also use these in your investigations,” said Goethe. He was right; for soon thereafter I discovered therein caffeine, which became so famous on account of its high nitrogen content."

"In the case of chemical investigations known as decompositions or analyses, it is first important to determine exactly what ingredients you are dealing with, or chemically speaking, what substances are contained in a given mixture or composite. For this purpose, we use reagents, i.e., substances that possess certain properties and characteristics, which we well know from references or personal experience, such that the changes which they bring about or undergo, so to say the language that they speak thereby inform the researcher that this or that specific substance is present in the mixture in question."

"A plant is a great chemist: it distinguishes and separates substances more definitely and accurately than man can, with all his skill, his intelligence, and his appliances."

"The little Daisy, which has painted its 'wee crimson-tipped flowers,' puts the chemist and scientific man to shame, for it has produced its leaf and stem and flowers, and has dyed these with their bright colors from materials which he can never change with all his art."

Connections

teacher:

Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner

13 December 1780 – 24 March 1849, a German chemist who is best known for work that foreshadowed the periodic law for the chemical elements, and for inventing the first lighter, which was known as the Döbereiner's lamp.

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography Volume 11
  1975
• The World of Caffeine
  2002