Background
He was born in a miner"s family in Freiberg, Saxony.
He was born in a miner"s family in Freiberg, Saxony.
In 1865 Frenzel finished his studies and was awarded the title of a mining inspector.
In 1861 he was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to study mineralogy at Bergakademie Freiberg. There he attracted the attention of August Breithaupt who asked him to help with organising the mineralogical collections of the academy and with testing mineral samples, and to assist in the professor"s mineralogical research. From then on, he worked for 25 years as a chemist in the metallurgical laboratories.
He also lectured at the Bergakademie.
One of his best known works is the mineralogical encyclopedia for the Kingdom of Saxony (), which contains descriptions of 723 minerals found in Saxony, information on their physical properties and chemical compositions, and descriptions of the corresponding localities. He died in Freiberg. 1870: Lithiophorite 1871: Pucherite und Bismutoferrite (as Hypochlorit) 1872: Heterogenite (Heterogenit-3R) und Miriquidite 1881: Lautite 1883: Rézbányit (also Rezbanyit, discredited in 1994, found to be a mixture of hammarite, krupkaite und cosalite) 1887: Hohmannite 1888: Amarantite 1893: Cylindrite.