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Speaking about today’s hero of our column “How to get a Nobel Prize,” we need to immediately dispel one persistent misconception: he has nothing to do with the founding of the German pharmaceutical giant that brought aspirin and heroin to this world - Bayer AG. This is the merit of another German and another Bayer, Friedrich. Our hero became famous not in pharmaceuticals, but in another branch of the chemical industry - the production of dyes. So, Adolf Bayer.

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Bayer

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1905. The Nobel Committee's wording:“For services in the development of organic chemistry and the chemical industry, through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds.”

Adolf Bayer is a Nobel laureate with one of the earliest dates of birth: he was born in 1835. He grew up in a talented family: his maternal grandfather, Julius Hitzig, was a famous publisher and the first biographer of the famous Hoffmann, and his father, Johann Jacob Bayer, was not only a military man, but also a scientist, the author of works on geography and optics.

Julius Gitzig

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Adolf himself also served in the army, after which he entered the University of Heidelberg. There he studied with the same great chemist with whom the previous Nobel laureate from our cycle (1905 laureate in physics) studied - Robert Bunsen, the discoverer of the famous burner. Generally speaking, there was no question of what Adolf wanted to become. He always wanted to become a chemist, and at the age of 12 he made his first chemical discovery, obtaining a new substance - double salt, a joint carbonate of sodium and magnesium.

True, in Heidelberg Bayer initially wanted to study physical chemistry, but an article on chloromethane published in 1857 led our hero to a business that he worked on for the rest of his life. Adolf became so interested in organic chemistry that he left Bunsen and began studying with another outstanding scientist - the author of the benzene formula, Friedrich Kekule. Bayer worked with him until 1860, after which he returned to Berlin.

Friedrich Kekule

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Our hero's first works were aimed at studying uric acid, then he switched to the “hard nut” of organic chemistry - indigo. This is a vegetable dye that is obtained from Indigofera tinctifera ( Indigofera tinctoria). This plant, native to India, has been a source of blue dye since ancient times.

Plant dyes, which had to be transported from afar (indigofera rasla only in the Indian climate), were very expensive, so obtaining indigo by simple chemical synthesis was very important. And for this it was necessary to establish a rather complex structure of the substance.

Indigofera tinctiva

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Back in 1841, the French chemist Auguste Laurent, while studying the structure of indigo, isolated isatin, a water-soluble crystalline compound.

Continuing the experiments begun by Laurent, Bayer also obtained isatin in 1866, using a new technology for reducing indigo by heating it with crushed zinc. The method used by the German chemist allowed for a more in-depth structural analysis than the Laurent method.

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Bayer was able to carry out the reverse process - to obtain indigo from the simpler isatin. By 1883, the scientist was able to decipher the structure of indigo. Much later, in 1900, in an article devoted to the history of indigo synthesis, he wrote: “At last I have in my hands the basic substance for the synthesis of indigo, and I feel the same joy that I probably felt (website about this Nobel laureate already wrote) when, after 15 years of work, he synthesized purine, the starting material for the production of uric acid.”

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His career also took its course: in 1875, the outstanding chemist Justus Liebig died (chemists primarily remember the scientist by the refrigerator named after him - a device for cooling evaporating liquid), and Bayer received his chair of organic chemistry. Here he continued to work on indigo, and also entered into a dispute over the benzene formula: communication with Kekule was not in vain.

German chemist Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Bayer was born in Berlin. He was the eldest of five children of Johann Jacob Bayer and Eugenie (Hitzig) Bayer. Bayer's father was an officer in the Prussian army, the author of published works on geography and the refraction of light in the atmosphere, and his mother was the daughter of the famous lawyer and historian Julius Eduard Hitzig. The boy showed an early interest in chemistry, and at the age of 12 he made his first chemical discovery. It was a new double salt - copper and sodium carbonate. After graduating from the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium, Bayer entered the University of Berlin in 1853, where over the next two years he studied mathematics and physics.

After a year of military service, Bayer became a student at the University of Heidelberg and began studying chemistry under the guidance of Robert Bunsen, who had recently invented the laboratory burner, which was named after him.

In Heidelberg, Bayer concentrated his attention on physical chemistry. But after the publication of an article on chloromethane in 1857, he became so interested in organic chemistry that, starting the next year, he began working for Friedrich August Kekule, who was engaged in structural chemistry, in his laboratory in Heidelberg. Here Bayer carried out work on organic arsenic compounds, for which he was awarded a doctorate. From 1858, for two years he worked with Kekule at the University of Ghent in Belgium, and then returned to Berlin, where he lectured on chemistry at the Berlin Higher Technical School.

Analyzing the reverse process - the production of indigo by oxidation of isatin, Bayer in 1870 was the first to synthesize indigo, thus making its industrial production possible. After Bayer moved to Strasbourg in 1872 and took up a position as professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, he began to study condensation reactions that release water. By carrying out condensation reactions of groups of compounds such as aldehydes and phenols, he and his colleagues were able to isolate several important coloring substances, in particular eosin pigments, which he subsequently synthesized.

In 1875, after the death of Justus von Liebig, Bayer succeeded this famous organic chemist, taking up the position of professor of chemistry at the University of Munich. Here, for more than four decades, he was the center of attraction for many gifted students. More than 50 of them subsequently became university teachers.

Returning to the study of the exact chemical structure of indigo, Bayer announced the results of his research in 1883. This compound, he said, consists of two linked “rod” molecules (which he called indole). For 40 years, the model created by Bayer remained unchanged. It was only revised with the advent of more advanced technology.

The study of dyes led Bayer to the study of benzene, a hydrocarbon in the molecule of which 6 carbon atoms form a ring. There were many competing theories regarding the nature of the bonds between these carbon atoms and the arrangement of the hydrogen atoms within the molecular ring.

Bayer, who by nature was more of an experimental chemist than a theoretician, did not accept any of the theories that existed at that time, but put forward his own - the “tension” theory. In it, the scientist argued that due to the presence of other atoms in the molecule, the bonds between carbon atoms are under tension and that this tension determines not only the shape of the molecule, but also its stability. And although this theory has received a slightly different interpretation today, its essence, correctly captured by Bayer, has remained unchanged. Bayer's studies of benzene also led him to the understanding that the structure of the molecules of the benzene group of aromatic compounds, called hydroaromatics, is a cross between the ring formation and the structure of the aliphatic hydrocarbon molecule (without a ring). This discovery he made not only indicated the relationship between these three types of molecules, but also opened up new opportunities for their study.

In 1885, on Bayer’s 50th birthday, in recognition of his services to Germany, the scientist was granted a hereditary title, which gave him the right to put the particle “von” in front of his surname. In 1905, Bayer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his services to the development of organic chemistry and the chemical industry through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds.” Since the scientist was ill at that time and could not personally attend the award ceremony, he was represented by the German ambassador. Bayer did not give a Nobel lecture. But back in 1900, in an article devoted to the history of indigo synthesis, he said: “At last I have in my hands the basic substance for the synthesis of indigo, and I feel the same joy that Emil Fischer probably felt when he 15 years of work synthesized purine, the starting substance for the production of uric acid.”

In 1868, Bayer married Adelheide Bendemann. They had a daughter and two sons. Until his retirement, Bayer continued to be passionate about research. He was deeply respected for his skill as an experimenter and his inquisitive mind. Despite the fact that the scientist received many lucrative offers from chemical companies, he refused to engage in industrial application of his discoveries and did not receive any income from his work. “Bayer had a personable and pleasant appearance,” Richard Willstätter recalled about him in a biographical sketch. “On his face lay the stamp of clarity, calmness and strength of mind, his blue eyes sparkled expressively, his gaze was penetrating.” Bayer died in his country house on Lake Starnberg, near Munich, on August 20, 1917.

Awards received by Bayer included the Davy Medal awarded by the Royal Society of London. He was a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and the German Chemical Society.

In the last years of the last century, tuberculosis was considered the main disease of mankind. Antibiotics did not yet exist, so the only treatment was to suppress the symptoms of the disease, primarily cough. Of all the drugs that existed at that time, cocaine, created specifically for medicinal purposes, dealt with this best. However, it soon became clear that cocaine “treatment” led to acute addiction. In 1896, Joseph von Mehring developed a new drug and convinced the main manufacturer of alkaloids, the Darmstadt company Merck, to put “dionine”, a morphine derivative, on the market in 1898. The commercial success of the new drug was so great that all pharmaceutical companies joined the inventive race.

On August 10, 1897, Felix Hoffman, an employee of Bayer, managed to synthesize acetylsalicylic acid, creating the first ever synthetic drug, that is, a medicinal substance that does not exist in nature. This aspect of the discovery is especially important because it is the first time the technology has become available for mass industrial production of the drug.

The success of aspirin was worldwide and endless. Despite all subsequent achievements and discoveries, it still remains the most common medication. According to recent data, the annual consumption of aspirin exceeds 40 billion tablets.

Thus, Bayer overnight became the main pharmaceutical company on the planet. But scientific thought, spurred by commercial considerations, did not stand still.

Diacetylmorphine was first synthesized in 1874 by Alder Wright, an English chemist working at the medical school at St. Mary's Hospital in London.

As a cough medicine, diacetylmorphine was developed by German chemist Felix Hoffmann and released by the German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG in 1898 under the brand name "heroin".

The drug was marketed as a cough sedative and as a non-addictive replacement for morphine (morphine). This was facilitated by the fact that heroin causes a relatively calm euphoria with minimal deviations in behavior and intelligence (subject to its short-term use). From 1898 to 1910, heroin was sold as a morphine replacement and cough medicine for children.

The success of Bayer's next new product turned out to be no less than the success of aspirin. Moreover, according to pharmacists, it was almost a panacea. Heroin - in the form of syrup or tablets - was prescribed by doctors for the flu and heart complaints, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and extensive sclerosis.

Over the course of 15 years, 1 ton of pure heroin was produced, which, as its creators expected, conquered the world. By 1915, Bayer was selling it to 22 countries, with the United States being the main buyer. The first warning signs about the side effects of heroin appeared overseas, and quite quickly. However, no one paid attention to them. Any criticism of the drug was considered slander of competitors and a threat to the progress of science. The total weight of the annual product was measured in many tons, and more and more countries were involved in production - in 1922, in addition to Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Japan, and Turkey made heroin. Not the least role among the producers of “opium for the people” was played by the young Soviet Republic. The years between 1925 and 1930 can be called, without exaggeration, the “Five Years of Heroin” - its global production (34 tons, released onto the market by 23 companies) reached its apogee. At the same time, it is believed that its medically justified amount should not exceed 10 tons.

The drug lost its importance in everyday medical practice only after the Second World War, but it was still sold in prescription departments of pharmacies. Final Heroin was banned in Germany only in 1971.

ADOLF VON BAYER

German chemist Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Bayer was born in Berlin on October 31, 1835. He was the eldest of five children of Johann Jacob Bayer and Eugenie (Hitzig) Bayer. Bayer's father, an officer in the Prussian army, was the author of published works on geography and the refraction of light in the atmosphere, and his mother was the daughter of the famous lawyer and historian Julius Eduard Hitzig. The happy days of Adolf Bayer's childhood were overshadowed by great misfortune - his mother died during childbirth. The eldest of the children, Adolf, felt the bereavement more than others.

My father, a geodesy specialist, spent most of the year traveling. Upon his return, he lived at home for some time, and then went to Mülheim with Adolf. Every time his father brought books, and Adolf remembered one of them, because it was with it that his interest in chemistry began.

At the gymnasium, teacher Schelbach, an excellent mathematician and physicist who also taught chemistry, actively supported Adolf’s interest in physics and chemistry. The boy studied with exceptional diligence, so Schelbach made him his assistant in the chemical laboratory. Adolf enjoyed demonstrating experiments in the classroom, but even more important for his development as a chemist were the experiments he conducted in his home laboratory. After reading Wöhler's manual on organic chemistry, Bayer became even more interested in the interesting, mysterious and little-studied science of chemistry. At the age of twelve he made his first chemical discovery. It was a new double salt - copper and sodium carbonate.

After graduating from the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium, Bayer entered the University of Berlin in 1853, where for the next two years he studied mathematics and physics.

After finishing the third semester, Bayer was drafted into the army. The young man served in the Eighth Berlin Regiment for a whole year. It was a difficult time for him, because for a year he could not even open a book. But, finally, having served his due time, Bayer returned home and faced the need to decide what to do next.

Eventually he entered the University of Heidelberg and began working in the laboratory of Professor Bunsen. Studying at the university was not limited to lecturing; from the beginning of the academic year, students were preparing for research work. In Heidelberg, Bayer focused his attention on physical chemistry. But after publishing an article on chloromethane in 1857, he became so interested in organic chemistry that, starting the next year, he began working for Friedrich August Kekule, who was engaged in structural chemistry, in his laboratory in Heidelberg.

The laboratory was cramped and poorly equipped. However, Bayer found in Kekule an excellent teacher, who had an excellent command of the methods of experimental work in organic chemistry, and even better of theory. Under Kekule's leadership, research progressed quickly and very successfully. Taking cacodylic acid as a starting material, Bayer in a short time synthesized new, hitherto unknown compounds - methylated arsenic chlorides, for which he was later awarded a doctorate.

From 1858, for two years, he worked with Kekule at the University of Ghent in Belgium. In Ghent, Bayer had no independent income; he lived on the money he received monthly from his father. The famous geodesist, now General Bayer, could afford to support his son, but his father increasingly insistently advised Adolf to think about his future himself.

At the beginning of 1860, Bayer arrived in Berlin. He passed the exam for private assistant professor brilliantly and began preparing for the upcoming lectures. There were no conditions for experimental work in the Berlin laboratories. Bayer did not have the funds to equip his own laboratory. There was only one thing left to do - solve theoretical problems.

After the death of his grandfather, famous scientists, writers, and art critics gathered in the Bayer house, as before. These evenings were often attended by old Bayer's friend, Privy Councilor Bendemann, who almost always came with his daughter Adelheide (Lydia). She became friends with Adolf's sisters. And when Adolf arrived in Berlin, the sisters’ beautiful, educated friend immediately attracted his attention. However, Bayer, living on his father’s income, could not even think about marriage. It was necessary to find a job with a regular income as soon as possible. And happiness smiled on him. In 1860, a new discipline was introduced at the vocational school, the future Higher Technical School, organic chemistry. Bayer agreed to the position of teacher of organic chemistry, although he was entitled to a small salary and half of it had to be given to an assistant, who received nothing at all.

Influenced by Kekule's passion, Bayer began to study first uric acid, and, starting in 1865, the structural composition of indigo, a highly prized blue dye in industry, named after the plant from which it is obtained. Back in 1841, the French chemist Auguste Laurent, while studying the complex structure of this substance, isolated isatin, a water-soluble crystalline compound. Continuing the experiments begun by Laurent, Bayer obtained isatin in 1866, using a new technology for reducing indigo by heating it with crushed zinc. The method used by Bayer allowed for a deeper structural analysis than the oxidation process carried out by Laurent.

The prestige of his laboratory increased enormously. Not only researchers, but also industrialists were interested in the young scientist. Bayer's revenues increased significantly. Now we could think about family life.

On August 8, 1868, the wedding of Adelheide Bendemann and Adolf Bayer took place. They had a daughter and three sons, one of whom, Franz, died in 1881. Known for her delicacy, tact and graceful manners, Mrs. Bayer enjoyed universal love and respect. In addition to her husband's young trainees, Mrs. Bayer usually invited venerable scientists, writers, artists, and musicians. The young wife not only skillfully took care of the household, but also helped her husband conduct correspondence. Bayer did not like to write. Even scientific articles in which he summed up the results of his research, Bayer wrote with great reluctance.

Analyzing the reverse process, the production of indigo by oxidation of isatin, Bayer in 1870 was the first to synthesize indigo, thus making its industrial production possible. After Bayer moved to Strasbourg in 1872 and took up a position as professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, he began to study condensation reactions that release water. By carrying out condensation reactions of groups of compounds such as aldehydes and phenols, he and his colleagues were able to isolate several important coloring substances, in particular eosin pigments, which he subsequently synthesized.

Here Bayer made many friends. Sometimes after work, the laboratory staff gathered at the scientist’s apartment, since the house in which Bayer lived was located next to the laboratory. At the large and noisy table, funny stories, jokes were told, and songs were sung. Adelheida loved these cheerful companies and knew how to enliven them with her skill as an excellent hostess. These young people, in love with science, rallied into one big family, at the center of which was Professor Bayer.

The scientist lived in Strasbourg for three years. In 1875, after the death of Justus von Liebig, Bayer succeeded this famous organic chemist, taking up the position of professor of chemistry at the University of Munich. Here, for more than four decades, he was the center of attraction for many gifted students. More than fifty of them subsequently became university teachers.

Returning to the study of the exact chemical structure of indigo, Bayer announced the results of his research in 1883. This compound, he said, consists of two linked “rod” molecules (which he called indole). For forty years, the model created by Bayer remained unchanged. It was only revised with the advent of more advanced technology.

The study of dyes led Bayer to the study of benzene, a hydrocarbon in the molecule of which 6 carbon atoms form a ring. There were many competing theories regarding the nature of the bonds between these carbon atoms and the arrangement of the hydrogen atoms within the molecular ring. Bayer, who by nature was more of an experimental chemist than a theoretician, did not accept any of the theories that existed at that time, but put forward his own - the “tension” theory. In it, the scientist argued that due to the presence of other atoms in the molecule, the bonds between carbon atoms are under tension and that this tension determines not only the shape of the molecule, but also its stability. And although this theory has received a somewhat modern interpretation today, its essence, correctly captured by Bayer, has remained unchanged. Bayer's studies of benzene also led him to the understanding that the structure of the molecules of the benzene group of aromatic compounds, called hydroaromatics, is a cross between the ring formation and the structure of the aliphatic hydrocarbon molecule (without a ring). This discovery he made not only indicated the relationship between these three types of molecules, but also opened up new opportunities for their study.

In 1885, on Bayer’s fiftieth birthday, in recognition of his services to Germany, the scientist was granted a hereditary title, which gave him the right to put the particle “von” in front of his surname.

...The years passed unnoticed. The eldest daughter Evgenia long ago married professor Oscar Piloty. The sons, Hans and Otto, also found their way in life. Grandchildren appeared...

The year was 1905. Dozens of Bayer's students, now already famous scientists, gathered in Munich to celebrate the seventieth birthday of the outstanding scientist. Ceremony, lunch in the large hall. Congratulations came from all over the world. During the celebrations, a message was received that Bayer had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his services in the field of organic chemistry “for his services to the development of organic chemistry and the chemical industry through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds.”

Since the scientist was ill at that time and could not personally attend the award ceremony, he was represented by the German ambassador. Bayer did not give a Nobel lecture. But back in 1900, in an article devoted to the history of indigo synthesis, he said: “At last I have in my hands the basic substance for the synthesis of indigo, and I feel the same joy that Emil Fischer probably felt when he was fifteen years old.” years of work synthesized purine, the starting material for the production of uric acid.”

After becoming a Nobel laureate, Bayer continued his research into molecular structure. His work on oxygen compounds led to discoveries concerning the tetravalency and basicity of oxygen. The scientist also studied the relationship between molecular structure and the optical properties of substances, in particular color.

Bayer maintained personal contacts with many prominent scientists in Europe. With almost no correspondence, he always found time to visit his colleagues, talk with them, learn about their achievements, and talk about his own. He was respected and greeted everywhere as a dear guest. Professorships in many European cities were occupied by his students. They remained attached to the old teacher and, coming to Munich, first of all, visited a familiar house.

Bayer's awards included the Davy Medal from the Royal Society of London. He was a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and the German Chemical Society.

The last years of the scientist’s life were overshadowed by the outbreak of the World War. The people of Germany bore all the burdens of the bloody massacre on their shoulders, and Bayer took it hard. He began to quickly become decrepit, often choking with a dry cough, and soon fell completely ill. On August 20, 1917, Adolf Bayer died in his country house on Lake Starnberg, near Munich.

Bayer Bayer (Adolf von) - one of the most remarkable experimental chemists of the last half of this century, the son of surveyor Johann-Jacob Bayer; born in Berlin in 1835. He received his chemical education mainly under the guidance of R. Bunsen in