Development of the Chemical Industry 3 



When Woehler was young, chemical research centered 

 about inorganic bodies and Woehler occupied himself 

 with the study of minerals and mineral substances. His 

 first great discovery he made in the field of inorganic 

 chemistry, when he in 1827 isolated aluminium by fusing 

 aluminium chloride with sodium, obtaining a metal of 

 silvery lustre but unusually light. His investigations of 

 cyanogen compounds in 1828 led him to the greatest dis- 

 covery of his life. In investigating the properties of 

 cyanate of ammonium (CNONH4) he studied its insta- 

 bility in aqueous solutions, effected its transformation 

 into urea (CO.NH2 NHo) and recognized this body by its 

 reactions and its properities. I well remember the 

 cluster of urea-crystals, crystals several inches long, and 

 of the thickness of a pencil, which were made at an early 

 time, securelv enclosed in a liter flask to serve as an 

 exhibit in lecture courses for many years to come. In 

 order to understand the importance of this discovery we 

 must remember that at that time chemists were con- 

 fining their efforts to the study of inorganic chemical 

 compounds. They were also interested in organic things, 

 meaning those resulting from growth of vegetation, or 

 from living things, all of which contained carbon, but 

 these bodies were found to be exceedingly complex and 

 almost without number. 



Methods of analysis had been developed by which the 

 qualitative and quantitative composition of organic com- 

 pounds could be ascertained, and it was known that in 

 such compounds carbon was combined with other ele- 

 ments like nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen in many pro- 

 portions, but all chemists had failed to build up from 

 the elements a single one of the many carbon compounds 

 which occurred in nature. These com]>ounds seemed to 

 be exceedingly complex, and since all efforts had proven 

 futile to produce any of them from the elements in the 

 laboratory, it was generally believed that organic com- 

 pounds could be produced only through the agency of 

 "vital force". 



