ACHAEMENIDAE, the Graecized name of the family of the ancient Persian kings. (See PERSIA : Ancient History.) ACHARD, FRANZ CARL ( , ) , Prussian chemist, was born at Berlin on April 28, 1753, and died at Kunern, in Silesia, on April 20, 1821. He was a pioneer in turning to prac tical account A. S. Marggraf's discovery of the presence of sugar in beetroot, and by the end of the 18th century he was pro ducing considerable quantities of beet-sugar, though by a very imperfect process, at Kunern, on an estate which was granted him, about 1800, by the king of Prussia. There, too, he carried on a school of instruction in sugar-manufacture. He published several volumes of chemical and physical researches and dis covered, among other things, a method of working platinum.