Johann Rudolph Glauber

Born 1604 in Karlstadt died Mar. 10, 1670, in Amsterdam. German chemist and physician.

For a considerable part of his life, Glauber worked in Holland. An advocate of iatrochemistry, he developed a number of chemical medicinal preparations. He obtained pure nitric acid by the distillation of saltpeter with sulfuric acid, and pure hydrochloric acid and sodium sulfate (Glauber’s salt) by heating common salt with sulfuric acid. He perfected furnaces, and was one of the first to use glass vessels in the laboratory. Glauber believed in the possibility of transmuting base metals into gold.