chemistry

Hermann Sprengel

Hermann Sprengel is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hermann Sprengel rather than just read about it. In short: Hermann Sprengel FRS (29 August 1834 – 14 January 1906) was a German-British chemist who discovered the explosive nature of picric acid in 1873, patented safety explosives and invented the mercurial air pump. Life He was born at Schillerslage, near Hanover, on 29 August 1834.

Key takeaways

Hermann Sprengel belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hermann Sprengel to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hermann Sprengel from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hermann Sprengel FRS (29 August 1834 – 14 January 1906) was a German-British chemist who discovered the explosive nature of picric acid in 1873, patented safety explosives and invented the mercurial air pump.

Life He was born at Schillerslage, near Hanover, on 29 August 1834. Sprengel was the son of George Sprengel. He was educated in Göttingen and earned his degree at the university at Heidelberg in 1858. He moved to England the following year and became a naturalised British subject. He was first employed as an assistant in chemical laboratory in Oxford and then moved to London to work at Guy's and St Bartholomew's Hospitals, before working in the chemical works of Thomas Farmer of Kennington (1865-1870). There he invented a generic class of materials called Sprengel explosives. In addition he invented a very robust and continuously operable device called the Sprengel Pump which could reduce the amount of air in a chamber to one-millionth of its volume paving the way for the filament light bulb. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1878. His candidature citation read "Distinguished as a Chemist and Physicist. Author of the following researches.

(1) Ueber einen neuen Lothrohrapparat (Pogg Ann v 112 1861) (2) On the detection of Nitric Acid (J Ch Soc 1865) (3) Researches on the vacuum (J Ch Soc 1865) (4) On determining the weight of heterogeneous liquids (J Ch Soc 1866) (5) Improvements in the preparation of Explosive compounds (6) The water air-pump (Phil Mag, 1873) (7) An Air-bath of constant temperature between 100 degrees & 200 degrees C (J Ch Soc 1873) (8) A method of determining the Specific Gravity of liquids with ease & great exactness (J Ch Soc 1873 & Pogg Ann 1874) (9) A new class of explosives which are non-explosive during their manufacture storage & transport (J Ch Soc 1873) (10) Use of water "atomiser" in production of Sulphuric Acid (Ch News 1875)." He died at 54 Denbigh Street, London, S.W., on 14 January 1906, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. He had never married.

References

Further reading Messel, Rudolph (1907). "Hermann Johann Philipp Sprengel". Journal of the Chemical Society. 91: 661–663. Guthrie, Andrew (1963). Vacuum Technology. New York and London: John Wiley and Sons Inc.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hermann Sprengel

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hermann Sprengel claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hermann Sprengel before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hermann Sprengel ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hermann Sprengel

In research: Hermann Sprengel appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hermann Sprengel in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hermann Sprengel is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1834 births, 1906 deaths, 19th-century British chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hermann Sprengel outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hermann Sprengel in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hermann Sprengel means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hermann Sprengel out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hermann Sprengel in simple terms?

Why does Hermann Sprengel matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hermann Sprengel?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hermann Sprengel.