AKD SCHONBEIX 89 



appreciated. Ever since Prof. Otto of Brunswick 1 

 suggested a method for obtaining guncotton, this 

 discovery has probably kept a greater number of 

 inquiring minds busy than any other in the field of 

 chemistry. 



I also have been engaged in experiments . on it ; I 

 prepare it from equal parts by volume of concentrated 

 sulphuric acid and commercial nitric acid of specific 

 gravity 145. I have discovered that it is formed 

 from lignin, and can be produced from the lignin of 



1 Friedrich Julius Otto, born in 1809 in Grossenhain in 

 Saxony, from 1835 professor of chemistry and pharmacy at the 

 Collegium Carolinum of Brunswick, where he died in 1870. 

 He also had, as he asserted, discovered a method of preparing 

 guncotton, founded on a paper by Pelouze [" Note sur les pro- 

 duits de 1'action de 1'acide nitrique concentre" sur 1'amidon et le 

 ligneux," Gompt. Rend., i. 7 (1838) p. 713]. This he had 

 published in the daily papers in October 1846, first in the All- 

 gemeine Zeitung of 5th October 1846 [reprinted in the Journal 

 fur prakt. Chemie, vol. xl. (1847) p. 194, and added superfluous 

 and malicious notes directed against Schonbein's legitimate 

 efforts to turn his discovery, the enormous practical value of 

 which he had instantly perceived, to the best pecuniary advan- 

 tage. These remarks were the more unjust as Schonbein was 

 actually suffering from the consequences of his " practical " dis- 

 covery. On September the 2nd, 1846, he writes to his wife 

 from London : " Perhaps I may make something of it if I do 

 not lose patience, but this is not easy. In certain respects it is 

 almost a misfortune to have made an important practical dis- 

 covery ; it completely destroys one's peace of mind. Faraday 

 and Grove told me the same thing : they continually stood in 

 fear of coming across something which would bring them in 

 contact with the practical world, as I have done." In October 

 he writes to her from Stanmore : " According to the opinion of 

 experts the patent is in no danger through Otto's articles. The 

 English press is unanimous in criticizing all later discoverers, 

 and saying that it is discreditable to these men to deprive me 

 of my well-earned deserts." 



