William Dittmar, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

William Dittmar

German chemist

Date of Birth: 14-Apr-1833

Place of Birth: Groß-Umstadt, Hesse, Germany

Date of Death: 10-Mar-1892

Profession: chemist, university teacher

Nationality: Germany

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Professor William Dittmar FRS FRSE LLD (1833–1892) was a German-born scientist renowned as a chemical analyst.
He was based largely in Scotland.
He did much analytical work on the findings from the Challenger expedition. He was the first to confirm the Principle of Constant Proportions, a theory first conjectured in 1865 by Johan Georg Forchhammer regarding the major ions of sea-water: that whilst salinity varied across the oceans, the ratios of ionic abundance remained constant.
As a result, the Principle is often called "Dittmar's Principle" or "Forchhammer's Principle".
His research also included calculations of the atomic weight of platinum.