Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetKarl Samuel Leberecht Hermann
German chemist
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Königerode, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
About Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann
- Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann (20 January 1765 – 1 September 1846) was a German chemist who helped discover cadmium in 1817. Cadmium was discovered in 1817 by a physician, Friedrich Stromeyer (1776–1835).
- The element was first found in the condensation of vapors (mixed with soot and zinc oxide) that rose out of a furnace in which zinc oxide was being roasted.
- Cadmium’s discovery is also loosely attributed to K.S.L.
- Hermann and J.C.H.
- Roloff who may have found cadmium in zinc oxide during the same year.
- A historical debate still remains as to who actually discovered the pure form of the element first.
- The phase of scientific history in which Stromeyer was active was one in which chemical discovery was being accomplished primarily by pharmacists, apothecaries and physicians.
- The practice of alchemy was dying out, and chemistry was just beginning to emerge as a separate science.
- Stromeyer, a professor at the University of Göttingen, was testing zinc oxide, a medicine in those days, for purity. The name of the element was derived from the Latin “cadmia” and the Greek “kadmeia,” both ancient names for calamine (zinc carbonate).
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