Runge-PDF-LD-2

Copyright Zucker inc. Runge, Ferdinand Friedlieb Hauswirthschaftliche Briefe, 1866 First second and third parts Von Dr. F. F. Runge. Erstes (bis) Drittes Dutzend.- Berlin: G. A. Koenig’s Verlag, 1866. 8vo. (160 x 115 mm) [4], 166 pp., (2); [4], 168 pp.; [2], 168 pp. with one mounted original paper chromatography’s („chemisches Wappen“) by the author. Later 3/4 cloth bound with marbled paper and gilt on spine. Exceedingly rare book on „science in the kitchen“ or „chemistry for housewives“ by the German chemist Ferdinand Friedlieb Runge (1794-1867) who describes in the 14th letter of his book how he discovered synthetic blue dye. This book is a known rarity (see foreword of the Reprint). With chapters on air, steam, water, coal, chlorine, sulfur, soda, vinegar, et al. Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was one of the most remarkable German chemists in the first half of the 19th century. After several years as professor for technical chemistry at the University of Breslau he joined chemical industry at Oranienburg in Prussia, owned by the Royal Maritime Society (Preuss. Seehandlung). In this industrial research laboratory he carried out his important study of synthetic dyes. In 1852 he was dismissed at the age of 58 when the company was privatized and he lost his pension and company flat in 1855 due to a dispute over intellectual property with the new management of the company. He died twelve years later in Oranienburg. He isolated phenol and aniline from coal tar as well as caffeine from coffee beans. Nowadays he is broadly acknowledged as one of the predecessors of paper chromatography. His publications in scientific journals were relatively rare but he published some popular scientific books in which he wanted to explain the chemistry to everyone. Runge was adherent to the romantic German Naturphilosophie and the chemical-dynamic theory which refused the atomic model. Runge focussed strongly on the visualization of chemical processes. Therefore he illustrated his books with real examples of chemical compounds which were suspended in a solution of rubber in mineral tar oil. He also developed graphical methods for the demonstration of the interrelation of different oxidation states for a given element. Runge wrote important treatises on the preparation, properties and uses of inorganic pigments and dyes and is a co-discoverer of aniline dyes made from compounds isolated from coal tar. 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. Runge placed drops of reactant solutions on blotting paper and then added a drop of a second reactant solution on top of the first drop. The solutions would react as they spread through the blotting paper, often producing colored patterns. His results were published in two, now famous and expansive, books, „Farbenchemie. Musterbilder für Freunde des Schönen und zum Gebrauch für Zeichner, Maler, Verzierer und Zeugdrucker, dargestellt durch chemische Wechselwirkung“ and „Der Bildungstrieb der Stoffe, veranschaulicht in selbstständig gewachsenen Bilder.“ Partington IV, 184; DSB XI, 615; Hein & Schwarz. Deutsche Apotheker-Biographie II, 549; Pogg. II, 722; Ferchl 460. Bussemas, H.H., Harsch, G. & Ettre, L.S. Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (1794–1867): “Self-grown pictures” as precursors of paper chromatography. Chromatographia 38, 243–254 (1994). KVK: Kreismuseum Oranienburg; Augsburg (only part 1/2); BL London; not in OCLC.