Beilshtein, Fedor

Beil’shtein, Fedor Fedorovich 

Born Feb. 5 (17), 1838; died Oct. 5 (18), 1906. Organic chemist. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1885).

Beil’shtein was born in St. Petersburg into a German family. In 1865 he was professor at the University of Göttingen and from 1866 to 1896 at the St. Petersburg Technological Institute. He was the author of a series of experimental studies on aromatic compounds and the composition of petroleum from the Caucasus. Beil’shtein discovered a method of detecting halogens in organic compounds, which became known as the Beil’shtein test. His great merit is to have supervised the compilation of an exhaustive, multivolume handbook of organic chemistry.

WORKS

Handbuch der organischen Chemie, 4th ed. Compiled by B. Prager [and others] and published by the German Chemical Society. Berlin, 1918–44.

REFERENCE

Richter, F. “K. F. Beilstein: Sein Werk und seine Zeit.” Berichte der Deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, 1938, Jahrg. 71, sec. A, pp. 35–55.