(1811–99). The gas-burning stoves and the common blowtorch of today are both monuments to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, a German chemist. He also helped develop the method of spectrum analysis which yields clues to the constitution and the motions of the stars. At the outset of his career he discovered that hydrated ferric (iron) oxide is an antidote for arsenic—a remedy that is still standard.
Robert Bunsen was born on March 30, 1811, in Göttingen, Germany. In six years of brilliant studies devoted to the organic compounds of arsenic that are now called cacodyls, Bunsen proved that inorganic elements such as metals could be combined with organic compounds.
In 1841 he began studying electrolysis with his invention, the Bunsen cell, which contained carbon, zinc, and sulfuric acid. He obtained metallic magnesium, and by burning it produced a brilliant light—a discovery which is now used in the photographic flashbulb. To measure the strength of such lights, he invented the grease-spot, or oiled-paper, photometer.
In 1852 Bunsen began teaching at the University of Heidelberg. From 1855 to 1863 he and one of his students, Henry Enfield Roscoe, made important studies of the chemical effects of light. By 1859 he and the university’s professor of physics, Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, were winning success in Bunsen’s most important contribution to science—organizing the science of spectroscopy, with which scientists can learn the chemical character of even the most distant stars (see Spectrum and Spectroscope). With this new method Bunsen discovered the chemical elements cesium and rubidium. Bunsen also invented the filter pump (1868), the ice calorimeter (1870), and the vapor calorimeter (1887).
In studying the composition of gases given off by blast furnaces, Bunsen discovered that from 50 to 80 percent of the heat energy in gas was being lost. He studied this problem and in 1855 announced a type of gas burner that would save most of this waste heat. The burner is named for Bunsen but is based on a design used previously by Peter Desdega and by Michael Faraday. The principle is used today in laboratories, gas ranges, and most gas furnaces. It combines a flammable gas with controlled amounts of air, thus producing a hotter flame. Bunsen died in Heidelberg on Aug. 16, 1899.