Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm (1811-1899)

German chemist credited with the invention of the Bunsen burner. His name is also given to the carbon-zinc electric cell, which he invented in 1841 for use in arc lamps. In 1860 he discovered two new elements, caesium and rubidium.

Bunsen was born in Göttingen. He studied chemistry there and at Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. He ended his academic career as professor of experimental chemistry at Heidelberg from 1852.

Bunsen was working on cacodyl compounds, unpleasant and dangerous organic compounds of arsenic, until a laboratory explosion cost him the sight of one eye and he nearly died of arsenic poisoning. In 1844 he invented a grease-spot photometer to measure brightness.

His first work in inorganic chemistry made use of the Bunsen cell. Using electrolysis, he was the first to isolate metallic magnesium and demonstrate the intense light it produces when burned in air. The Bunsen burner was probably used to heat metal salts for spectroscopic analysis, a technique which he pioneered, together with physicist Gustav Kirchhoff, and by which he discovered the new elements.