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A heretical look at the Benzolfest*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Günter P. Schiemenz
Affiliation:
Institut für Organische Chemie der Universität Kiel, D-W 2300 Kiel 1, Germany.

Extract

The Benzolfest of 1890 in honour of August Kekulé fell into that economically prosperous, politically peaceful period of European imperialism which is characterized by the splendour of the courts of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India; Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, King of Hungary; and the German Emperor Wilhelm II, King of Prussia. Whoever could afford it (and even some of those who could not) tried to imitate these models and to participate at least to a modest extent in the glamour of the imperial courts. Merits were honoured by the bestowal of titles, orders and medals, and many an effort to the benefit of the common weal in deeds and money was induced by the prospect of becoming a Privy Councillor (Geheimrat) or a Councillor of Commerce (Kommerzienrat), of being awarded the Order of the Red Eagle [of Prussia] (the fourth class being almost automatically given to a major of the Prussian army who in this peaceful time had never had a chance to distinguish himself, and not so automatically to a distinguished professor on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday), or even of being raised to hereditary nobility, the epithet von added to the name being the permanently visible sign of particular excellence.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1993

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References

1 Typical is Victor Meyer's situation in 1888. At the inauguration of the new chemical institute at Göttingen, Meyer, forty years old, was awarded the title of Geheimrat by the Prussian government. At that time, he received a call from the government of Baden to succeed Bunsen at Heidelberg. The offer included the title of Geheimrat II. Klasse, which was superior to Geheimer Hofrat and next to Wirklicher Geheimer Rat. The husband of Victor's cousin Marie congratulated him on the bestowal of the Geheimrat title with a somewhat joking hint of even higher honours: ‘Und wenn sie Dich auch noch “von”-en / Und machen zum “Wirklichen” Dich, / Wir bleiben in Treu Dir gesonnen / Und lieben Dich inniglich!’ Meyer replied ‘Nicht wünsch ich, dass sie mich “von”-en, / Noch zum “Wirklichen” machen mich. / Ach! Ein andrer Traum ist zerronnen! / In Göttingen bleibe ich!…Gold, Ruhmsucht, Titel und Ehren, / Sie halten zurücke mich nicht! / Nichts habe ich hier zu begehren. / Ich tu nur die bittere Pflicht!’ Meyer preferred to be addressed as ‘professor’ rather than with his new title of Geheimrat. Meyer, R., Victor Meyer. Leben und Wirken eines deutschen Chemikers und Naturforschers 1848–1897 (= Ostwald, W. (ed.), Grosse Männer. Studien zur Biologie des Genies, iv), Leipzig, 1917, 227–30.Google Scholar

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60 This device has a long tradition in heraldry.

61 Though speculating about the connectivity of the six carbon atoms in benzene, Loschmidt did not arrive at a conclusion. He therefore treated the ‘benzene nucleus’ as a sort of hexavalent superatom, represented by a ball, hence in print by a circle, the diameter of which took account of the ‘atomic weight’ of 72 and therefore exceeded that of the sulphur ball (circle). The proper meaning of all ‘circles’ as balls is obvious from Loschmidt's text and was correctly understood by Graebe, , op. cit. (56), 236–7, 286–8.Google Scholar Much later, the benzene ball (circle) was wrongly taken to represent the connectivity of the carbon atoms. From this error, the opinion arose that Loschmidt rather than Kekulé conceived the ‘benzene ring’: Wiswesser, W. J., ‘Johann Joseph Loschmidt (1821–1895): a forgotten genius. Benzene rings and much more in 1861’, Aldrichimica Acta (1989), 22, 1718Google Scholar; ‘Johann Joseph Loschmidt (1821–1895): Ein vergessenes Genie. Der Benzolring und so manches andere im Jahre 1861’, Österreichische Chemie-Zeitschrift (1990), 91, 47–8Google Scholar; ‘Johann Josef Loschmidt (1821–1895) – Zapomenutý génius. Benzenové jádro a mnohem víe v roce 1861’, Chemické Listy pro vědu a pr mysl (1990), 84, 1062–6Google Scholar; Bader, A., ‘Loschmidt, not Kekulé, published first benzene ring diagrams’Google Scholar, paper presented at the ACS-Symposium ‘The Kekulé Benzoifest 100 Years Later’, Boston MA, USA, 23 April 1990 (and elsewhere). Noe, C. R. and Bader, A., ‘Loschmidt, Josef’, in The Kekulé Riddle. A Challenge for Chemists and Psychologists (ed. Wotiz, J. H.), Clearwater FL, Vienna IL, 1993, 221–45Google Scholar; Noe, C. R. and Bader, A., ‘Facts are better than dreams’, Chemistry in Britain (1993), 126–8.Google Scholar A detailed refutation was presented by Schiemenz, G. P., ‘Good-bye, Kekulé? Eine Anamnese der Loschmidt-Legende’Google Scholar, (a) Symposium of the Division of History of Chemistry of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, Tübingen, Germany, 22 March 1991, (b) First ‘Mineralkontor’ International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry, Veszprém, Hungary, 15 August 1991, (c) Department of Chemistry of the University of Tartu, Estonia, 2 October 1991, (d) Department of Chemistry of the University of Oldenburg, Germany, 6 February 1992, (e) University of Rostock, Germany, 13 February 1992. Schiemenz, G. P., ‘Goodbye, Kekulé? Josef Loschmidt und die monocyclische Struktur des Benzols’, Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau (1993), 46, 85–8.Google Scholar

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64 In a letter to Erlenmeyer: Anschütz, , op. cit. (3), 305.Google Scholar Like Erlenmeyer, Kekulé ‘was in command of a striking, never failing humour; part of his mentality was an ironic trait which became obvious also to strangers by way of the sarcastic smile which often played around his lips’Google Scholar (Meyer, , op. cit. (1), 433).Google Scholar For a proper assessment of Kekulé's modesty, one has to bear in mind that he himself applied for his ennoblement: Anschütz, , op. cit. (3), 645Google Scholar (‘Not without exhibiting a sort of satisfaction, Kekulé showed us the precious certificate of ennoblement’, ibid., 646–7); Štrbáňová, S. and Janko, J., ‘Bohuslav Raýman, Friedrich August Kekule a Česká Akademie Věd a umění’, Dějiny Věd a Techniky (1990), 23, 93105Google Scholar; ‘Die Umstände der Nobilitierung F. A. Kekules’, Chemie in unserer Zeit (1991), 25, 208–13.Google ScholarŠtrbáňová, S. and Janko, J., ‘Kekulé's character in the light of his ennoblement’Google Scholar, in Wotiz, op. cit. (61), 195210.Google Scholar

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72 Anschütz, , op. cit. (3), 412.Google Scholar For an appreciation of the meaning of Handwerk, see the stringent criticism of Swiss students by Meyer, V.: Meyer, , op. cit. (1), 78.Google Scholar The phrase ‘Each man to his own’ (‘Sehe jeder, wie er's treibe’) is a quotation from Goethe, J. W.'s poem Beherzigung.Google Scholar

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84 Ladenburg, A., ‘Ueber Benzolformeln’, Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft (1890), 23, 1007–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Baeyer's reply: Baeyer, A., ‘Ueber die Constitution des Benzols, 5. Ueber die Reductionsproducte der Phtalsäure’, Justus Liebig's Annalen der Chemie (1890), 258, 145219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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