Wohler

Wohler, Friedrich (Friedrich Wohler, 1800-1882), German chemist, the first to artificially obtain, by synthesis, a substance of animal origin - urea. W. received his chemical education first in the laboratory of A. Ganshin, and then from Berzelius. W.'s early works dealt with the field of inorganic chemistry. He was the first to isolate and obtain aluminum in its pure form. No less remarkable are W.'s works on the study of transformations of cyanic acid. As a result of these researches, the first organic synthesis was carried out. Specifically, W. discovered that when aqueous ammonium cyanate solution is evaporated on a water bath, this salt turns into urea, which precipitates as a crystalline deposit CNONH₄=NH₂.CO.NH₂ (until this discovery, it was believed that the formation of urea and other organic substances is inextricably linked to life processes and occurs under the action of a special 'vital force'). Wohler was the first to show that organic substances can be obtained by the same method as many mineral compounds (thus, the synthesis of urea was the first complete synthesis of an organic substance). The significance of this fact in the history of chemical science is enormous, as it established a close connection between the phenomena of living and dead nature, and organic chemistry from this moment lost its isolated place and became simply the chemistry of carbon compounds. Interestingly, Wohler's discovery, which is usually dated to 1828, was actually made by him somewhat earlier. Thus, in a ^work published as early as 1824, W. points out that when cyanide acts on aqueous ammonia, along with oxalic acid, cyanide and ammonium cyanate, some 'peculiar crystalline matter' is formed. But the dogmatism of the views existing at that time about the impossibility of preparing organic substances of animal origin from mineral compounds did not allow him to recognize the obtained matter as urea, and only more than three years later did a second research appear, where urea was definitely mentioned.