Wilhelm Eschweiler (born December 1, 1860, in Euskirchen and died March 21, 1936)Life data according to John Andraos Named Organic Reactions E-H, pdf was a German chemist. He was a professor at the Technical University of Hanover.
Biography He passed his final exam (Obersekunda) at the Knickeberg Institute in Telgte and completed his pharmacy studies in Goch. He then visited pharmacies in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Elberfeld, Wiesbaden, Metz, and Hamburg, and studied pharmacy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, passing the state exam in 1886.
A year later, he became an assistant to at the Inorganic Institute of the Technical University of Hanover. During this time, he earned his doctorate in 1889 at the University of Rostock, focusing on contributions to the understanding of formaldehyde.The dissertation was published in Darmstadt: C. F. Winter Buchdr., 1889 In 1892, he became a private lecturer in analytical chemistry at Hanover, where he also taught food chemistry. In 1895, he received the title of professor, and in 1921, he became an associate professor. From 1927 to 1929, he was a senior assistant. From 1900 to 1934, he lectured in analytical chemistry.
He particularly studied mineral dyes, polythionic acids, and was considered an expert in explosives and gunpowder. In the latter field, he often acted as an industry consultant and investigated, among other things, the Oppau explosion at in 1921. Much of his research was published in the theses, diplomas, and dissertations of his students. One of his students was Fritz Strassmann.
The Eschweiler-Clarke methylation is named after him and Hans Thacher Clarke. Eschweiler published work on this in 1905,Chem. Ber., volume 38, 1905, pages 880-892 and Clarke in 1933.H. T. Clarke, H. B. Gillespie, S. Weisshaus, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Band 55, 1933, 4571–4587 Sometimes, it is known only as the Eschweiler methodEnciclopedia Treccani, Italian (where the Eschweiler-Clarke reaction is referred to as the Eschweiler method).In the entry by Schwarz in the German Apotheker Biography, it is only referred to as the Eschweiler Reaction. It is described there as the formation of tertiary amines (trimethylamine) from formaldehyde and ammonium salts.
Publications "On the Constitution of Acid Amides", Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft ("Reports of the German Chemical Society"), year 30, 1897, number 8. "Replacement of Hydrogen Atoms Bound to Nitrogen by the Methyl Group with the Help of Formaldehyde", Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft ("Reports of the German Chemical Society"), vol. 38, no. 1, 1905.
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