Carl Friedrich Wenzel facts for kids
Carl Friedrich Wenzel (around 1740 – February 26, 1793) was a German chemist and metallurgist. He made important discoveries about how fast different chemicals react. For example, he found that the amount of metal that dissolves in an acid depends on how strong the acid is.
Wenzel was the first person to talk about the idea of "equivalent weight". This is a way to measure how much of one chemical reacts with another. He even published a table showing the equivalent weights of acids and bases. Later, another chemist named Jeremias Benjamin Richter made an even bigger table.
Carl Wenzel, whose first name is sometimes spelled Karl, was born in Dresden in 1740. His father wanted him to be a bookbinder, but Carl didn't like that trade. So, in 1755, he left home. He studied surgery and chemistry in Amsterdam and then became a ship's surgeon for the Dutch navy.
In 1766, Wenzel grew tired of life at sea. He decided to study chemistry in Leipzig. After that, he focused on metallurgy (the science of working with metals) and assaying (testing the purity of metals) back in his hometown. He became very good at it.
Wenzel's Career and Later Life
Because of his success, Carl Wenzel got an important job in 1780. He was made the chemist for the foundries (places where metal is melted and shaped) in Freiberg by the elector of Saxony.
A few years later, in 1785, he became an assessor. This meant he helped supervise the foundries. Then, in 1786, he became the chemist for the famous porcelain works in Meissen. Porcelain is a type of fine ceramic.
Carl Friedrich Wenzel passed away in Freiberg in 1793. His work helped scientists better understand how chemicals react and how to measure them accurately.
