DOBEREINER, JOHANN WOLFGANG German chemist, was born near Hof in Bavaria on Dec. 15, 1780. After studying pharmacy at Miinchberg, he started a chemical manufactory in 1803, and in 1810 was appointed professor of chemistry, pharmacy and technology at Jena, where he died on March 24, 1849. The Royal Society's Catalogue enumerates 171 papers by him on various chemical topics, but he is best known for his experiments on platinum in a minute state of division and on the oxidation products of alcohol. He studied the formation of aldehyde from alcohol by various methods, also obtaining its crystalline compound with ammonia, and he was the discoverer of furfural. An early observation of the diffusion of gases was recorded by him in 1823 when he noticed the escape of hydrogen from a cracked jar, attributing it to the capillary action of fissures. His works included treatises on pneumatic chemistry (1821-25) and the chemistry of fermentation (1822).
A correspondence which he carried on with Goethe and Charles August, grand-duke of Saxe-Weimar, was collected and published at Weimar by Schade in 1856.