| posted 10/15/00 |
|
Ehrlenmeyer flask
We rarely pause to think that early flasks were round bottomed -- the result of simple glass-blowing technique. Someone had to "discover" flat-bottomed flasks. And that was Robert Erhlenmeyer in 1861. Ehrlenmeyer (1825-1909) also introduced modern structural notation--a system he modified from Alexander Crum Brown. We also have "Ehrlenmeyer's Rule": a hydroxyl attached to a double-bonded carbon becoms an aldehyde or a ketone. Hence, there are no such alcohols. But which contibuted more to the development of science: Ehrlenmeyer's rule and notation, or his flask?
|
