Background
Nikolaus Fischer was born on January 15, 1782, in Great Meserich, Moravia (today Mezirici Velke, Czechoslovakia).
Nordhäuser Str. 63, 99089 Erfurt, Germany
Fischer received his doctorate in medicine in Erfurt in 1806.
Nikolaus Fischer was born on January 15, 1782, in Great Meserich, Moravia (today Mezirici Velke, Czechoslovakia).
Fischer studied in Vienna, Prague, Wroclaw and Berlin. In 1806 he received his doctorate in medicine in Erfurt.
After graduating, Nicolaus practiced in Wroclaw, where he also gave lectures at the school of surgery. After the founding of the University of Wroclaw in 1811, he qualified there as Privatdozent. In 1815 the first chair in chemistry was established at the university, and Fischer was appointed to it. He held this position until his death.
In approximately sixty articles published in contemporary German journals, Fischer presented the results of his diversified chemical and medical research. Many of his investigations are of lasting importance.
At first, he reported on the triple salt K3 Co(NO2)6, which entered inorganic chemistry as “Fischer’s salt.” He employed this salt in the analytical separation of nickel from cobalt. He undertook osmotic investigations and hence observed endosmosis. He gave an account of this research in a heterogeneous article in the part entitled “Über die Eigenschaft der thierischen Blase, Flüssigkeiten durch sich hindurch zu lassen.”
Fischer took a great interest in electrochemical phenomena. He investigated the electrochemical reducibility of metals in galvanic cells with the goal of finding the relationship between chemical affinity and galvanism. For this purpose he constructed various cells and observed the so-called galvanoplastic phenomenon, which later, through other researchers, led to the elaboration of technical electroplating.
Fischer made a galvanic cell consisting of silver and zinc electrodes. The former was immersed in dilute sulfuric acid and the latter in moist silver chloride, which he contained in bladders. He thus obtained a voltaic pile which delivered a more or less constant electric current.
Fischer also concerned himself with, among other things, the investigation of the sensitivity to light of silver chloride, methods for the legal and medical detection of arsenic, and the chemical reactions of the then comparatively new elements tellurium and selenium.
Nikolaus was originally a Jew, but in 1815 he converted to Christianity with his family.
Fischer was an honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society in Saint Petersburg.