Christian Friedrich Sch̦nbein, Chemist
Christian Friedrich Sch̦nbein (October 18, 1799 - August 29, 1868) was a German-Swiss chemist. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed to a chemical and pharmaceutical firm. While there he acquired sufficient scientific skills and knowledge to ask for an examination by the professor of chemistry at Tubingen. He passed the exam. He was given a position at the University of Basel in 1828, and became a full professor in 1835. In 1838 he published an article on the principle of the fuel cell. Based on this work, the first fuel cell was demonstrated by Welsh scientist William Grove in 1839. While doing experiments on the electrolysis of water he began to notice a distinctive odor in his laboratory. He coined the term "ozone" for the new gas. He later found that the smell of ozone was similar to that produced by the slow oxidation of white phosphorus. In 1845 he spilled a bottle of concentrated nitric acid on the kitchen table. He used his wife's cotton apr to wipe it up. He hung the apron on the stove door to dry, and, as soon as it was dry, there was a flash as the apron exploded. He quickly recognized the possibilities of the new compound as a possible smokeless powder and a propellant for artillery shells, that came to be known as guncotton. Attempts to manufacture guncotton failed at first because the factories were prone to explode and the burning speed of straight guncotton was always too high. He died in 1868 at the age of 68. The first practical smokeless powder made from nitrocellulose, for firearms and artillery ammunition, was invented by French chemist Paul Vieille in 1884.
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