80 EXPERLMENT STATION. [Jan. 



CHARLES ANTHONY (iOESSMANN. 



Charles Antliuiiy Goessmann, chemist, hivestigator, teacher and jihil- 

 osopher, passed to the higher life Sept. 1, 1910. 



Karl Anton Gossmann was born in Nanmburo-, in the Grand Duchy 

 of Hesse, Germany, June 13, 1827. He was the son of Di'. Heinrich 

 Gossmann, who was a fellow student of the noted chemist Frederich 

 Wohler. When the boy was seven or eight years of age the family 

 moved to Fritzlar in Hesse and here young- Gossmann spent his boy- 

 hood days. His father wished his son to become a pharmacist, and he 

 received training in pharmacy previous to his becoming a university 

 student. He entered the university of Gottingen in 1850, and studied 

 chemistry, botany, physics, geology and mineralogy. He received the 

 degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1851 for a dissertation on the 

 " Constituents of the Cantharides." Wohler early recognized the 

 ability and industry of the young chemist, and made him assistant 

 in his laboratory, and upon the appointment of Limprecht to a jsro- 

 fessorship, Gossmann became a privatdocent and Wohler's fii"st as- 

 sistant. He assumed charge of the chemical laboratory, and lectured 

 on organic and technical chemistry as well as to students of pharmacy. 

 His American students during the i)eriod were Chandler, Marsh, Joy, 

 Nason, Caldwell and Pugh. 



During his stay at Gottingen he received a number of flattering 

 offers from other institutions, and made the acquaintance of Schonbein, 

 the chemical physicist who discovered gun cotton and ozone; of 

 Schrotter, noted for his researches in phosphorus; of A. W. von 

 Hoffmann and of the celebrated French chemist Sainte Clair Deville. 



Tn 1857 Gossmann left Gottingen on leave of absence, and visited 

 the luiiversities and a number of manufacturing establishments in 

 Germany, Austria, France and England, and then journeyed to the 

 United States upon invitation from Eastwich Brothers in order to 

 become scientific director of their large sugar refineries. It was his 

 intention eventually to return to Germany and teach technical chem- 

 istry, but he became so interested in the new country, and observed 

 such a wide field of future usefulness for the technical chemist, that 

 he decided to make the Ignited States his permanent home. 



After completing his work at Philadelphia he went to Cuba in order 

 to study the methods of handling sugar then in vogue. On returning 

 to the United States he was engaged as chemist by the Onondaga 

 Salt Comiiany of Syracuse, a position which ho retained until 1S69. 



