Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge


Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was a German analytical chemist. Runge identified the mydriatic effects of belladonna extract, identified caffeine, and discovered the first coal tar dye.

Early life

Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was born near Hamburg on 8 February 1794. From a young age, Runge conducted chemical experiments, serendipitously identifying the mydriatic effects of belladonna extract.

Career

In 1819, Runge was invited to show Goethe how belladonna caused dilation of the pupil, which Runge did, using a cat as an experimental subject. Goethe was so impressed with the demonstration that
A few months later, Runge identified caffeine.
Runge studied chemistry in Jena and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate. After touring Europe for three years, he taught chemistry at the University of Breslau until 1831. From then on he worked for a state-owned chemical company in Oranienburg near Berlin, but was dismissed at the age of 58 when the company was privatised in 1852. He lost his pension and company flat in 1855 due to a dispute over intellectual property with the new management of the company. He died twelve years later in Oranienburg. He is commemorated by the plant genus Rungia named after him in 1832 by the botanist Nathaniel Wallich.

Discoveries

His chemical work included purine chemistry, the identification of caffeine, the discovery of the first coal tar dye, coal tar products, paper chromatography, pyrrole, chinoline, phenol, thymol and atropine. Runge placed drops of reactant solutions on blotting paper and then added a drop of a second reactant solution on top of the first drop. The solutions would react as they spread through the blotting paper, often producing colored patterns. His results were published in two books, Farbenchemie. Musterbilder für Freunde des Schönen und zum Gebrauch für Zeichner, Maler, Verzierer und Zeugdrucker, dargestellt durch chemische Wechselwirkung and Der Bildungstrieb der Stoffe, veranschaulicht in selbstständig gewachsenen Bilder.
In 1855, he was the first to notice the phenomenon of Liesegang rings, observing them in the course of experiments on the precipitation of reagents in blotting paper.

Tribute

On February 8, 2019, Google celebrated his 225th birthday with a Google Doodle.

Gallery