Russian inventions

Runge identified the mydriatic pupil dilating effects of belladonna deadly nightshade extract, identified caffeine , and discovered the first coal tar dye aniline blue. Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was born near Hamburg on 8 February From a young age, Runge conducted chemical experiments, serendipitously identifying the mydriatic pupil dilating effects of belladonna deadly nightshade extract.

In , Runge was invited to show Goethe how belladonna caused dilation of the pupil, which Runge did, using a cat as an experimental subject. Goethe was so impressed with the demonstration that. A few months later, Runge identified caffeine.

German inventors and their inventions

Runge studied chemistry in Jena and Berlin , where he obtained his doctorate. After touring Europe for three years, he taught chemistry at the University of Breslau until From then on he worked for a state-owned chemical company in Oranienburg near Berlin, but was dismissed at the age of 58 when the company was privatised in He died twelve years later in Oranienburg.

He is commemorated by the plant genus Rungia named after him in by the botanist Nathaniel Wallich. His chemical work included purine chemistry, the identification of caffeine , the discovery of the first coal tar dye aniline blue , Runge called aniline "Kyanol" blue-oil [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] coal tar products and a large number of substances that derive from coal tar , paper chromatography , pyrrole , chinoline , phenol , thymol and atropine.

Runge placed drops of reactant solutions on blotting paper and then added a drop of a second reactant solution on top of the first drop. The solutions would react as they spread through the blotting paper, often producing colored patterns. His results were published in two books, Farbenchemie. In , he was the first to notice the phenomenon of Liesegang rings , observing them in the course of experiments on the precipitation of reagents in blotting paper.

In botanist Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck published Rungia , a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Acanthaceae about 82 species worldwide , with its name honouring Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge.