Talk:August Wilhelm von Hofmann

hmm
Hofmann was one the most promsing students of Justus Liebig. Justus Liebig being the one responseble of the German chemistry devovledment. Before Liebig it was only the proffesors that had a lab which only the best of the students was invited into.

Formosus
I wonder if Hofmann named Formaldehydes after Pope Formosus. The mere thought makes burst into laughter and then I feel bad about it.

Korosuke (talk) 07:19, 16 February 2016 (UTC)
 * No: the word "formaldehyde" was coined because this substance is the ALDEHYDE of FORMic acid. "Aldehyde" was named by Liebig because it was created by taking ALcohol and DEHYDrating it.  So "aldehyde" in Liebig's and Hofmann's day meant what we now call acetaldehyde.  The lower homologue was formaldehyde.  "Formic" acid was named after the Latin word for "ant", because this acid was first obtained by destructive distillation of thousands of ants.Ajrocke (talk) 13:56, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Molecular Models
This relatively new section is incorrect in some ways. There is an excellent treatment of the subject, with proper references and readily available on the web, at https://webspace.yale.edu/chem125/125/history99/6Stereochemistry/models/models.html I will make the necessary changes to this section.Ajrocke (talk) 21:30, 8 September 2018 (UTC)