Robert Bunsen Research Paper

Robert Bunsen was born on March 31, 1811 in Gottingen, Germany. He was the youngest of four sons. Robert started schooling in the city of Holzminden, and then studied chemistry at Gottingen. Bunsen was awarded his doctorate in 1830 for a dissertation on different kinds of hygrometer. He was only 19 at this point in his life. Following being awarded his doctorate, he immediately set off on extensive travels that took him through Germany and Paris and eventually to Vienna from 1830 to 1833. All of his travels allowed Bunsen the opportunity to establish a network of contacts that would stay with him throughout his illustrious career. Bunsen returned to Germany and became a lecturer at Gottingen. Robert began his experimental studies of the insolubility of metal salts of arsenious acid. Because of this experimenting he discovered the use of iron oxide hydrate as a precipitating agent which is still the best known antidote against arsenic poisoning to this day. Bunsen gained his Habilitation with work on these organometallic compounds in two years.
After many years of study Robert Bunsen invented one of the most well known chemist's tools.
He invented the Bunsen burner sometime in 1855 in attempt to find a better lighting and heating source in the laboratory. The idea for the Bunsen burner was simple. He proposed mixing the gas with air before combustion instead of the other way around. The university mechanic, Peter Desaga, designed and built the burner according to Bunsen's specifications. Peter Desaga contributed to the modern design of the two large holes with a rotatable, perforated ring. Others began to produce their own versions of the Bunsen burner and even tried to claim the invention as their own. Bunsen and Desaga were able to have the proper authorities refute these
claims. Soon after the invention of the Bunsen burner, Robert and Kirchhoff invented the Bunsen-Kirchhoff spectroscope. This was a vital instrument of chemical analysis that can trace ancestry to such simple components as a "prism, a cigar box, and two ends of otherwise unusable old telescopes. This invention proved to be of tremendous importance in chemical analysis and the discovery of new elements. The spectrometer consisted of a collimator, with adjustable slit and a prism for comparison of spectra, a second collimator, with a photographed millimeter scale, and a telescope for examining the rays from the former tow. In addition to yielding a unique spectrum for each element, the spectroscope had the advantage of definite identification while only using a minimal amount of sample, on the range of nanograms to micrograms for elements like sodium and barium. Using these techniques Bunsen and Kirchhoff discovered cesium. Soon after, they discovered another alkali metal, rubidium. Because of the spectroscope, five new elements were discovered. In 1870 Bunsen devised a sensitive ice calorimeter that measured the volume rather than the mass of the ice melted. This allowed him to measure the metals' specific heat to find their true atomic weights. The Bunsen calorimeter allows making very exact measurements and requires only a few grams of the substance to be investigated.
Bunsen also invented the filter pump (1868), the vapour calorimeter (1887) and grease-spot photometer used to compare intensity of similar light sources (1844), a new valve, Bunsen-effuser (determines gas density by velocity measurement of gas drain through a small hole). Bunsen left behind a glowing legacy of discoveries and technological advances that allowed the world of chemistry to burn brightly.