BUNSEN MEMOKIAL LECTURE. fi87 



worked at the next bench to myself, being a medical student Ma. s.-t 

 to pump out and analyze the blood gases; Pauli and Carius work.d ,.„ 

 gas absorption, employing for this purpose Bunsen\s recently inyent,.d 

 absorptiometer; Russell was set to work out a new n^ethod of s.dpiu.r 

 determmation in organic bodies; Matthiessen was put on t., th,' .-lec- 

 trolytic preparation of calcium and strontium; Schischkott" analyzed 

 the gaseous products of gunpowder fir.^d under yarying condition.- 

 Landolt had to lind out the composition of the gases in yarious por- 

 tions of a flame, and I worked by myself in one of the monk's cells 

 upstairs on the solubility in water of chlorine when mixed with hydi-o- 

 gen and carbonic acid, the object being to ascertain whetiier this o-us 

 obeys the law of Dalton and Henry. 



These are only some of the inyestigations on a yariety of subjects 

 carried on in the old monastery by Bunsen's pupils under his super- 

 vision, and they indicate only a tithe of his activity, foi- at the same 

 time he was engaged in inyestigations of his own. He always had two 

 or three on hand at once. 



When Bunsen accepted the chair of chemistry at Heidelberg the 

 Baden Goyernment agreed to build him a new laboratoiy. This was 

 accordingly done, the plans haying been M'orked out by him to the 

 smallest detail, and in the summer of 1855 the new laboratoiy in the 

 Plock Strasse was opened. The rooms were by no means so lofty as 

 those of our more modern laboratories, and as students fi-om all |)arts 

 of the world streamed in in large and increasing iiumiImts. the new 

 building soon became inconyeniently crowded, and many aiiplications 

 for working benches had to be refused. 



Some short time before the opening of the new lal)oratory the town 

 of Heidelberg was for the first time lighted with gas. and Bunsen had 

 to consider what kind of gas-burner he would use foi- lal)oratorv pur- 

 poses. Returning from my Easter yacation in London. I lnought 

 back with me an Argand l)iirner with co})]>er chimney and wire-gauze 

 top, which was the form conmionly used in English lal>oi-atories at that 

 time for working with a smokeless flame. This arrangement did not 

 please Bunsen in the veiy^ least. 1'he flame was fli(l<(M-ing; it was too 

 large, and the gas was so much diluted with air that the llaine tempeni- 

 ture was greatty depressed. He would make a liurnei- in whicji the 

 mixture of gas and air would burn at the top of the tiihe without any 

 gauze whatsoever, giving a steady, small, and hot. nonluminous llanie 

 under conditions such that it not only would l)urn without striking 

 down when the gas supply was turned on full, but also when the supidy 

 was diminished until oidy a minute flame was left. This was a diflieult, 

 some thought it an impossible, problem to solve. l»utaft<'r many fruit- 

 less attempts and many tedious trials, he succeeded, and the Biuisen 

 burner came to light. On the theory of the Bunsen lairner I need not 

 detain you, for it has already been l>n)ught before the society in his 



