Hofmann, August Wilhelm

19th Century
Born: Giessen (Germany), 1818 
Died: Berlin (Germany), 1892
Hofmann was a pupil of Justus Liebig. From 1845 to 1864 he was professor at several institutions in London. After that he served as professor in Bonn and Berlin. His main field of research were organic nitrogen compounds like aniline and toluidine. He became one of the initiators of the coal-tar dyestuff industry. In 1851 he postulated an ammonia type of organic compounds and showed that ammonia salts can be transformed to tertiary amines. Hofmann also produced formaldehyde from methanol and introduced an apparatus for the electrolysis of water.