Editing Carl Graebe

{{Short description|German chemist (1841–1927)}} 
{{Infobox  scientist
| birth_name        = 
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1841|02|24|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Frankfurt am Main]], Germany
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1927|01|19|1841|02|24|df=yes}}
| name              = Carl Graebe
| image             = [[File:Carl Graebe 1890s.jpg|frameless]]
| caption           = Carl Graebe in the 1890s
| education         = [[University of Karlsruhe|Karlsruhe Polytechnic]]<br>[[University of Heidelberg]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Robert Wilhelm Bunsen]]
| academic_advisors = [[Adolf von Baeyer]]
| workplaces        = [[Hoechst AG]]<br>[[University of Leipzig]]<br>{{nowrap|[[University of Königsberg]]}}<br>[[University of Geneva]]
| doctoral_students = [[Vera Popova|Vera Bogdanovskaia]]
| website           = 
}}
 
'''Carl Graebe''' ({{IPA|de|ˈɡʁɛːbə|lang}}; 24 February 1841 – 19 January 1927) was a German industrial and academic [[chemist]] from [[Frankfurt am Main]] who held professorships in his field at [[Leipzig University|Leipzig]], [[University of Königsberg|Königsberg]], and [[University of Geneva|Geneva]]. He is known for the first synthesis of the economically important dye, [[alizarin]], with [[Carl Theodore Liebermann|Liebermann]], and for contributing to the fundamental nomenclature of [[organic chemistry]].

==Biography==
[[File:Carl Graebe 1860-07-13.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Carl Graebe in 1860]] 
Graebe was born in Frankfurt in 1841. He studied at a vocational high school in [[Frankfurt]] and [[University of Karlsruhe|Karlsruhe Polytechnic]] and in [[Heidelberg]]. Later he worked for the chemical company ''Meister Lucius und Brüning'' (today [[Hoechst AG]]). He supervised the production of [[Fuchsine]] and researched violet colorants made using [[iodine]]. The work with iodine resulted in eye problems, so he returned to academia.

Carl Graebe received his Ph.D. from the [[University of Heidelberg]] in 1862 under the supervision of [[Robert Wilhelm Bunsen]]. In 1868 he wrote his [[habilitation]], and became a professor in [[University of Leipzig]]. Graebe was Professor of Chemistry at the [[University of Königsberg]] from 1870 until 1877, and at the [[University of Geneva]] from 1878 until 1906. This was a period rich in the development of structural theory and nomenclature, and Graebe is known for introducing the "ortho", "meta" and "para" nomenclature for [[naphthalene]] ring substitution.<ref>In 1869, Graebe first used the prefixes ortho-, meta-, para- to denote specific relative locations of the substituents on a di-substituted aromatic ring (viz, naphthalene):  Graebe (1869) [https://archive.today/20151128145356/http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x002457978;view=1up;seq=32 "Ueber die Constitution des Naphthalins"] (On the structure of naphthalene), ''Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie'', '''149''' :  20–28 ; see especially p. 26.   In 1870, the German chemist [[Viktor Meyer]] first applied Graebe's nomenclature to benzene:  Victor Meyer (1870) [https://archive.today/20151023152601/http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101044011672;view=1up;seq=649 "Untersuchungen über die Constitution der zweifach-substituirten Benzole"] (Investigations into the structure of di-substituted benzenes), ''Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie'', '''156''' :  265–301 ; see especially pp. 299–300.  See also:  Hermann von Fehling, ed., ''Neues Handwörterbuch der Chemie'' [New concise dictionary of chemistry] (Braunschweig, Germany:  Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1874), vol. 1, [https://books.google.com/books?id=X_gfAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1142 p. 1142.]</ref>

Amongst Graebe's students was [[Vera Popova|Vera Bogdanovskaia]], an early victim of the inherent risks of chemical research (dying as a result of later independent research on [[methylidynephosphane]]); her doctoral dissertation under Graebe was on [[dibenzyl ketone]] (1892).<ref name=ogilvie>{{cite book|last1=Ogilvie|first1=Marilyn|last2=Harvey|first2=Joy|authorlink1=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie|authorlink2=Joy Harvey|title=Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science|date=16 December 2003|isbn=1135963436|page=311|publisher=Routledge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUCUAgAAQBAJ&pg=311}}</ref><ref name="Rayner-Canham">{{cite book|last1=Rayner-Canham|first1=Marelene |last2=Rayner-Canham|first2=Geoffrey|title=Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-twentieth Century|year=2001|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=S_NJ7AubQIcC&pg=64|page =64|publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-0-941901-27-7}}</ref>

Graebe synthesized the [[dye]] [[alizarin]] in 1868 with [[Carl Theodore Liebermann]]. Alizarin had been isolated from [[madder root]] some forty years earlier in 1826 by the French chemist [[Pierre Robiquet]]. Its [[chemical synthesis]] was a milestone in the development of the German and international dye industry, and foreshadowed collapse of the French agricultural sector that produced madder root (after synthesis became the more economical means of producing alizarin).{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

Graebe died in Frankfurt in 1927.

==References==
{{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Graebe, Carl}}
[[Category:1841 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century German chemists]]
[[Category:Scientists from Frankfurt]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Königsberg]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Geneva]]
[[Category:Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Heidelberg University alumni]]
[[Category:Burials at Frankfurt Main Cemetery]]
[[Category:Sanofi people]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Leipzig University]]