KOLBE, ADOLPHE WILHELM HERMANN (1818 1884), German chemist, was born on Sept. 27, 1818, at Elliehau sen, near Gottingen, where in 1838 he began to study chemistry under F. Wdhler. In 1842 he became assistant to R. W. von Bun sen at Marburg, and three years later to Lyon Playf air at London.
From 1847 to 1851 he was engaged at Brunswick in editing the Dictionary of Chemistry, started by Liebig, but in the latter year he went to Marburg as successor to Bunsen in the chair of chemis try. In 1865 he was called to Leipzig in the same capacity, and he died in that city on Nov. 25, 1884. Kolbe developed chemical the ory in regard to the constitution of organic compounds, which he viewed as derivatives of inorganic ones, formed from the latter, directly or indirectly, by simple processes of substitution. Unable to accept Berzelius's doctrine of the unalterability of organic radicles in its entirety, he introduced a modified idea of the struc tural radicles, which, under the influence of his fellow-worker Edward Frankland's conception of definite atomic saturation capacities, contributed in an important degree to the subsequent establishment of the structure theory. A great achievement to his
credit was the forecast of the possible existence of secondary and tertiary alcohols ; these were subsequently discovered by Friedel (1862) and Butlerow (1864), respectively. Kolbe was a very suc cessful teacher, a ready and vigorous writer, and a brilliant ex perimentalist. He is best known for his work on the electrolysis of salts of fatty and other acids, for his preparation of salicylic acid from phenol and for his discovery of nitro-methane. To gether with Frankland he found that nitriles are converted into the corresponding acids on hydrolysis.
His works include: Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie (1854) ; and Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der theoretischen Chemie (1881).