Premium
The Life and Times of Peter Griess
Author(s) -
Cliffe W. H.
Publication year - 1959
Publication title -
journal of the society of dyers and colourists
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.297
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1478-4408
pISSN - 0037-9859
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-4408.1959.tb02325.x
Subject(s) - diazo , griess test , genius , pleasure , chemistry , medicinal chemistry , art history , history , psychology , organic chemistry , nitrite , neuroscience , nitrate
Until he was 28 years old Peter Griess betrayed no sign of his latent genius for chemical research. As a student at Marburg University, he at first showed little interest in science and preferred the society of irresponsible and pleasure‐seeking companions. His discovery of diazo compounds in 1858 attracted the attention of others and led him to write the first of more than 140 contributions to chemical literature. Almost the whole of his work on diazo compounds and their reactions, and on azo dyes, was carried out in England, first at the Royal College of Chemistry and thereafter during his 25 years as chemist to Samuel Allsopp & Sons at Burton‐on‐Trent. Griess's work is sketched against the background of the times. He is seen as a nostalgic, lone worker, watching the growth of a great industry in which he had no part but which developed by organised research based on his own pioneering offorts. Honoured in this country and abroad during his lifetime, Griess died suddenly in 1888.