Everything about Justus Von Liebig totally explained
Justus von Liebig (
May 12,
1803 –
April 18,
1873) was a
German chemist who made major contributions to
agricultural and
biological chemistry, and worked on the organization of
organic chemistry. As a
professor, he devised the modern
laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he's regarded as one of the greatest chemistry teachers of all time. He is known as the "father of the
fertilizer industry" for his discovery of
nitrogen as an essential
plant nutrient, and his formulation of the
Law of the Minimum which described the effect of individual nutrients on crops. He also developed a manufacturing process for
beef extract, and founded a company,
Liebig Extract of Meat Company, that later
trademarked the
Oxo brand beef
bouillon cube.
Biography
Liebig was born in
Darmstadt into a middle class family. From childhood he was fascinated by chemistry and even was expelled from his
grammar school for detonating an
explosive device he'd made at home from chemicals obtained from his father's
drysaltery business. [Thistale is probably apocryphal--there is no historical evidence that it occurred.] He was apprenticed to the
apothecary Gottfried Pirsch (1792-1870) in
Heppenheim.
Liebig attended the
University of Bonn, studying under
Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner, a business associate of his father. When Kastner moved to the
University of Erlangen, Liebig followed him and later took his doctorate from Erlangen. Liebig didn't receive the doctorate until well after he'd left Erlangen, and the circumstances are clouded by a possible scandal [seeMunday (1990)]. Also at Erlangen, Liebig fell in love with the poet
August Graf von Platen (1796-1835) who wrote several sonnets dedicated to Liebig. He left Erlangen in March 1822, in part because of his involvement with the radical Korps Rhenania (a nationalist student organization) but also because of his hopes for more advanced chemical studies.
In autumn 1822 Liebig went to study in
Paris on a grant obtained for him by Kastner from the
Hessian government. He worked in the private
laboratory of
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, and was also befriended by
Alexander von Humboldt and
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832).
After leaving Paris, Liebig returned to Darmstadt and married Henriette Moldenhauer, the daughter of a state official. This ended Liebig's relationship with Platen.
In 1824 at the age of 21 and with Humboldt's recommendation, Liebig became a
professor at the
University of Giessen. He established the world's first major school of chemistry there. He received an appointment from the King of Bavaria to the
University of Munich in 1852, where he remained until his death in 1873 in
Munich. He became Freiherr (baron) in 1845.
He founded and edited from 1832 the journal
Annalen der Chemie, which became the leading German-language journal of Chemistry. The volumes from his lifetime are often referenced just as
Liebigs Annalen; and following his death the title was officially changed to
Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie.
Research and development
Liebig improved organic analysis with the
Kaliapparat-- a five-bulb device that used a potassium hydroxide solution to remove the organic combustion product carbon dioxide. He downplayed the role of
humus in plant
nutrition and discovered that plants feed on
nitrogen compounds and
carbon dioxide derived from the air, as well as on
minerals in the
soil. One of his most recognized and far-reaching accomplishments was the invention of nitrogen-based
fertilizer. Liebig believed that nitrogen must be supplied to plant roots in the form of ammonia. Though a practical and commercial failure, his invention of fertilizer recognized the possibility of substituting chemical fertilizers for
natural (animal dung, etc.) ones. He also formulated the
Law of the Minimum, stating that a plant's development is limited by the one essential mineral that's in the relatively shortest supply, visualized as "Liebig's barrel". This concept is a qualitative version of the principles used to determine the application of fertilizer in modern agriculture.
He was also one of the first chemists to organize a laboratory as we know it today. His novel method of organic analysis made it possible for him to direct the analytical work of many graduate students. The vapor condensation device he popularized for his research is still known as a
Liebig condenser, although it was in common use long before Liebig's research began. Liebig's students were from many of the German states as well as Britain and the United States, and they helped create an international reputation for their
Doktorvater.
In 1835 he invented a process for
silvering that greatly improved the utility of
mirrors.
Liebig's work on applying chemistry to plant and animal physiology was especially influential. At a time when many chemists such as
Jöns Jakob Berzelius insisted on a hard and fast separation between the organic and inorganic, Liebig argued that "...the production of all organic substances no longer belongs just to the organism. It must be viewed as not only probable but as certain that we'll produce them in our laboratories. Sugar, salicin [aspirin], and morphine will be artificially produced." [Liebigand Woehler (1838)]
Liebig's arguments against any chemical distinction between living (physiological) and dead chemical processes proved a great inspiration to several of his students and others who were interested in materialism. Though Liebig distanced himself from the direct political implications of materialism, he tacitly supported the work of Karl Vogt (1817-1895), Jacob Moleschott (1822-1893), and Ludwig Buechner (1824-1899).
Liebig played a more direct role in reforming politics in the German states through his promotion of science-based agriculture and the publication of
John Stuart Mill's
Logic. Through Liebig's close friendship with the Vieweg family publishing house, he arranged for his former student Jacob Schiel (1813-1889) to translate Mill's important work for German publication. Liebig liked Mill's
Logic in part because it promoted science as a means to social and political progress, but also because Mill featured several examples of Liebig's research as an ideal for the scientific method.
Liebig is also credited with the notion that "
searing meat seals in the juices." This idea, still widely believed, isn't true.
Working with
Belgian engineer George Giebert, Liebig devised an efficient method of producing beef extract from carcasses. In 1865, they founded the
Liebig Extract of Meat Company, marketing the extract as a cheap, nutritious alternative to real
meat. Some years after Liebig's death, in 1899, the product was trademarked "
Oxo".
After
World War II, the
University of Giessen was officially renamed after him,
"Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen". In 1953 the
West German post office issued a stamp in his honor.
Major works
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