Background
Thomsen was born in Copenhagen, and spent his life in that city.
Thomsen was born in Copenhagen, and spent his life in that city.
From 1847 to 1856 he taught chemistry at the Polytechnic, where from 1883 to 1892 he was the director From 1856 to 1866 he was on the staff of the military high school. In 1866 he was appointed professor of chemistry at the university, and retained that chair until his retirement from active work in 1891.
In particular, between 1869 and 1882, he carried out a great number of determinations of the heat evolved or absorbed in chemical reactions, such as the formation of salts, oxidation and reduction, and the combustion of organic compounds.
His collected results were published from 1882 to 1886 in four volumes under the title Thermochemische Untersuchungen, and also a resume in English under the title "Thermochemistry" in 1908. In 1857 he established in Copenhagen a process for manufacturing soda from cryolite, obtained from the west coast of Greenland.
Royal Society; Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]
Thomsen was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1880.