Abstract
ALL who take an interest in the progress of chemistry will regret the death of William Dittmar; a smaller circle feel that they have lost an invaluable friend. Born at Umstadt, near Darmstadt, April 15, 1833, he was the second son of Fritz Dittmar, then Assessor at Umstadt, afterwards Landrichter at Ulrichstein, in Ober-Hessen, where he took a part in the movements of 1848 displeasing to the Hessian Government, who removed him from office, allowing him to retire on a pension. At the age of sixteen, therefore, William became a resident in Darmstadt, where his father spent his enforced leisure. He was apprenticed to the Hof-Apotheker in Darmstadt, and in due time passed his “Gehiilfe Examen” with distinction. He had access to a good collection of books on chemistry and physics, which he eagerly read. He went as Gehiilfe to Miihlhausen in Alsace, where he spent several years, and returning to Darmstadt passed the “Staats Examen” in pharmacy, passing in the first class. But the attraction of pure chemistry prevailed, and in 1857 he went to Heidelberg. Bunsen soon saw what kind of student he had got, and appointed him assistant in the laboratory. There he met Sir Henry Roscoe, who invited him to Manchester as his private assistant. On Roscoe's appointment as Professor of Chemistry in the Owens College, Dittmar went with him as assistant. In 1861 he became chief assistant in the Edinburgh University Chemical Laboratory under Prof. Sir Lyon Play-fair. In 1869 he went to Bonn, where he acted first as Privatdocent and afterwards as Lecturer on Meteorology at the Agricultural College at Poppelsdorf. In 1872 he declined the Chair of Chemistry in the Polytechnic School at Cassel, preferring to return to Edinburgh to his old post in the University. Here he remained only a few months, accepting in 1873 tne Lectureship on Practical and Technical Chemistry in the Owens College. Thence he removed to Glasgow to succeed Prof. Thorpe in the Chair of Chemistry in the Andersonian College. This office he held till his death, February 9, 1892. He died literally in harness. He lectured in the morning, but not feeling very well, went home in the middle of the day, and after a few hours' illness died at 11.30.
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B., A. William Dittmar. Nature 45, 493–494 (1892). https://doi.org/10.1038/045493b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/045493b0