Beckmann, Ernst Otto


Beckmann, Ernst Otto

 

Born July 4, 1853, in So-lingen; died July 13, 1923, in Berlin. German chemist.

In 1886, Beckmann discovered the rearrangement of ketoximes into amides. In 1888 he developed a method of determining the molecular masses of dissolved substances on the basis of Raoult’s law by the decrease in the freezing point and the increase in the boiling point of their solutions. He invented a thermometer that permits the exact determination of a temperature near the freezing or boiling points—the so-called metastatic (Beckmann) thermometer.