Ostwald, Carl Wilhelm Wolfgang

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OSTWALD, CARL WILHELM WOLFGANG

(b. Riga, Latvia, Russia, 27 May 1883; d. Dresden, Germany, 22 November 1943)

colloid chemistry, zoology.

Ostwald, the second child of Wilhelm Ostwald, was a founder of colloid chemistry. He attended the Realgymnasium in Leipzig and at the age of fifteen composed a scientific work on the cases of the larvae of the caddis fly. After completing his secondary education he studied zoology at Leipzig under Carl Chun. From 1904 to 1906 he was a research assistant to Jacques Loeb at Berkeley, California. There he became friendly with the physiologist and physician M. H. Fischer, with whom he worked on the theory of fertilization. He qualified as a lecturer in biology at Leipzig in 1907 and he became professor of colloid chemistry in 1915. In 1907 he became editor of Zeitschrift fur Chemie und Industrie der Kolloide and, beginning in 1909, he also edited Kolloidchemische Beihefte. Through these journals and through the Kolloid Gesellschaft, founded in 1922 at his suggestion –he was its first president and held that post for two decades—Ostwald organized and encouraged research in colloid chemistry. In 1923 he was appointed director of the colloid chemistry division of the physicalchemical institute at the University of Leipzig. He became a full professor there in 1935 and had a large circle of students.

In his zoological studies Ostwald explained the suspension of plankton and described the process of fertilization as a colloidal phenomenon. He established that there are no sharp differences between mechanical decompositions and colloidal and molecular solutions. He also defined colloids as disperse systems that are generally polyphasic and that possess particles 1–100 millimicrons in size. Ostwald worked on colloid chemistry problems involving, for example, bread and rubber. In addition he discovered the rule of color dispersion in the optics of colloidal systems and explained the irregular flow behavior of colloids, their textural viscosity, and their textural turbulence. He also worked on the law governing precipitation in saturated colloidal solutions, electrolytic coagulation, and other colloidal properties. In addition he developed a method of foam analysis. Through the lectures he gave outside Leipzig, especially in the United States, and through his books Ostwald made an essential contribution to obtaining international recognition of colloid chemistry as an independent field.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works Ostwald’s approximately 200 scientific papers include “Kolloidwissenschaft, Elektro technik und heterogene Katalyse,” Kolloidchemische Beihefte, 32 (1930), 1–48; “Über mesomorphe und kolloide Systeme,” in Zeitschrift für Kristallographie…, 79 (1932), 222–254; “Ūber Osmose und Solvation disperser Systeme,” in Zeitchrift für physikalische Chemie, 159A (1932), 375392; “Elektrolytkoagulation und Elektrolytaktivitatskoeffizient,” in Kolloidzeitschrift, 73 (1935)-87 (1939),and 94 (1941), 169–184 (12 papers on this topic); “Metastrukturen der Materie,” in Kolloidchemische Beihefte, 42 (1935), 109–124; “Über die andere geschichtliche Wurzel der Kolloidwissenschaft,” in Kolloid-Zeitschrift, 84 (1938), 258–265; and “Physikalisch-chemische Metastasen,” ibid.,100 (1942), 2–57.

Ostwald’s books include Neue theoretische Betrachtungsweise in der Planktologie (Stuttgart, 1903); Grundriss der Kolloidchemie (Leipzig, 1909); Die Welt der vernachlassigten Dimension (Leipzig, 1914), which consists of lectures given in the United States; Praktikum der Kolloidchemie (Leipzig, 1920); and Licht und Farbe in Kolloiden (Dresden-Leipzig, 1924).

Bibliographies of his works are in : Poggendorif, IV, 1103 ; V, 930–931 ; VI, 1929–1931 ;and VIIa, pt .3, 484–486 in the biographical article by Lottermoser.

II. Secondary Literature See the following, listed chronologically: A. Lottermoser, “Wolfgang Ostwald 60 Jahre alt,” in Kolloidzeitschrift, 103, no.2 (1943), 89–94 (bibliography 91–94); G. F. HŪttig, “Wolfgang Ostwald,” in Forschungen und Fortschritte, 20 (1944), 118–119; and other obituaries by R. E. Oesper, in Journal of Chemical Education, 22 (1945), 263; by H. Ebring, in Kolloidzeitschrift, 115 (1949), 3–5; by E.A. Hauser, in Journal of Chemical Education, 32 (1955), 2–9; and by M. H. Fischer, “Wolfgang Ostwalds Weg zur Kolloidchemie,” in Kolloidzeitschrift, 145 (1956), 1–2.