22 Mar /13

Bunsen

For many of us, the Bunsen burner probably brings back memories of high school chemistry classes (some good, but many really quite dull). Why groups of teenagers are allowed to go near a piece of equipment that 1) produces a flame and 2) emits flammable gas is difficult to comprehend, especially in this era of strict health and safety laws. Girls would singe their hair, classrooms would be filled with the smell of gas from an unlit but forgotten Bunsen burner, and potential pyromaniacs of the future would burn all manner of objects for pleasure.

Talking of health and safety, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-1899), the German chemist who gave his name to the Bunsen burner, was blinded in his right eye and almost died of arsenic poisoning during his six years of studies in organic chemistry which started in 1837. Despite the apparent dangers of his work, this hugely important figure of modern chemistry enjoyed a highly successful career, and is credited with: the introduction of the Bunsen burner in 1855 (although he didn’t actually design it), the discovery of Rubidium and Caesium, the invention of the carbon-zinc electric cell (battery), the filter pump, the ice-calorimeter and, unsurprisingly perhaps, the antidote to arsenic poisoning. His work went onto inspire other scientists, too: Sir William Huggins, an English astronomer, applied Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff’s spectrum analysis discoveries to his work showing that stars are composed of the same elements that occur on the sun and earth.

Students may groan as their chemistry teacher pulls out the wall chart of the periodic table, but behind these letters and numbers are stories of fascinating people, like Robert Bunsen, who spent their lives researching, discovering and inventing and, in the process, helping to shape the future as we understand it today.