chemistry

Lewis Feuchtwanger

Lewis Feuchtwanger 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 Lewis Feuchtwanger rather than just read about it. In short: Lewis Feuchtwanger ([ˈfɔɪ̯çtˌvaŋɐ], 11 January 1805 – 25 June 1876) was a German-born chemist known primarily for his work on United States coinage. Feuchwanger was married to Augusta Levy and had five children.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Lewis Feuchtwanger ([ˈfɔɪ̯çtˌvaŋɐ], 11 January 1805 – 25 June 1876) was a German-born chemist known primarily for his work on United States coinage. Feuchwanger was married to Augusta Levy and had five children.

Biography Lewis Feuchtwanger was the son of a mineralogist, and inherited a taste for natural science, to which he devoted special attention at the University of Jena. After receiving his doctor of philosophy degree there in 1827, he emigrated to the United States in 1829, and settled in New York, where he opened the first German pharmacy, and also practiced medicine, being particularly active during the cholera epidemic of 1832. Subsequently, he devoted his entire attention to chemistry and mineralogy, and became engaged in the manufacture and sale of rare chemicals. He introduced in 1829 the alloy called German silver, and was the first to call the attention of the U. S. government to the availability and desirability of nickel for small coins. In 1837, he issued, by permission of the U. S. government, a large quantity of one-cent pieces in nickel of which were known as Feuchtwanger Cents, and in 1864, he had struck off a number of three-cent pieces in the same metal, but they were not put into circulation. After the great fire of 1846 he called the attention of the authorities of New York to the fact that saltpetre would explode under certain conditions. This statement created much discussion; the expression "Will saltpetre explode?" became a byword, and a play was acted at one of the theatres in which a character representing Feuchtwanger was presented. He made two large collections of minerals of which he partially sold in 1832, one of these he exhibited in London at the World's fair in 1851, and the other, he bequeathed to his daughters, was for a time on exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in Central Park. Feuchtwanger was a member of scientific societies in this country and abroad, and contributed papers to Silliman's American Journal of Science and to the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In the 1850s to the 1870s, Feuchtwanger opened up a chemical plant because of his buying and selling of commercial quantities of minerals for use in preparing chemical preparations from the raw material. Lewis Feuchtwanger died on June 25, 1876, in New York City.

Works Popular Treatise on Gems (New York, 1838) Elements of Mineralogy (1889) Treatise on Fermented Liquors (1858) Practical Treatise on Soluble or Water Glass (1870)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lewis Feuchtwanger

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lewis Feuchtwanger 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 Lewis Feuchtwanger 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 Lewis Feuchtwanger 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 Lewis Feuchtwanger

In research: Lewis Feuchtwanger 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 Lewis Feuchtwanger 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: Lewis Feuchtwanger is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1805 births, 1876 deaths, American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lewis Feuchtwanger 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 Lewis Feuchtwanger in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lewis Feuchtwanger 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 Lewis Feuchtwanger out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lewis Feuchtwanger in simple terms?

Why does Lewis Feuchtwanger 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 Lewis Feuchtwanger?

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 Lewis Feuchtwanger.