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Robert Bunsen Biography (1811-1899)
Robert Bunsen is best known for his invention of the improved gas flame device which bears his name: the Bunsen burner. However, Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen’s contributions to science extend far beyond this one invention; he developed a number of other common laboratory instruments, as well as a new device and process for analyzing the elemental constituents of chemicals called spectroscopy. This new science, developed with Gustav Kirchhoff, is probably his most important legacy to science. Bunsen received his doctorate in 1830 from the University of Göttingen, in his hometown. His high marks earned him a grant from the Hanoverian government and with those funds he traveled toBerlin, Bonn, Paris, and Vienna during the next three years. At each stop hemet with the cities’ great thinkers and toured their centers of industry. Upon his return to Göttingen he was made an instructor at the university;his stay there was brief, however, and he taught at several other German universities until 1852, when he settled into a professorship at the University of Heidelberg. During the years before Heidelberg, Bunsen’s research efforts were concentrated in the field of organic chemistry, particularly in the studyof arsenic and its compounds. Though his studies yielded some advances, suchas the discovery of an antidote for cyanide poisoning, he abandoned this research when an explosion of cacodyl cyanide in 1843 cost him his right eye. Adetermined scientist, Bunsen applied his talents toward inorganic chemistry and the behavior of inorganic gases. He observed heated gases in geysers and furnaces and published his only book as a compilation of his gas research findings. At this time he began the work that would ultimately lead him to the discovery of spectroscopy. Bunsen had become interested in the chemical properties of alkali metals, such as barium and sodium. In order to isolate these elements, he invented new types of galvanic and carbon-zinc batteries (many ofwhich are still called Bunsen batteries).
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