Gottlieb Kirchhoff

Gottlieb Sigismund Kirchhoff
Born	19 February 1764 Teterow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Died	14 February 1833 (aged 68) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Residence	Russia
Fields	Chemistry
Known for	Hydrolysis of starch into a sugar. Refining vegetable oil.

Gottlieb Sigismund Constantin Kirchhoff (19 February 1764 – 14 February 1833) was a Russian chemist. In 1811 he became the first person to convert starch into a sugar (corn syrup), by heating it with sulfuric acid.^[1] This sugar was eventually named glucose.^[2] He also developed a method of refining vegetable oil, and established a factory that prepared two tons of refined oil a day.^[2]

Since the sulfuric acid was not consumed, it was an early example of a catalyst. (A term that Jöns Jacob Berzelius would later coin.)

References

1. See:
   • Scherer (1811) "Kirchof's entdeckte Zubereitung des Zuckers und Syrups aus Buchweizen" (Kirchhoff's discovery of a preparation of sugar and syrup from buckwheat), Bulletin des Neuesten und Wissenwürdigsten aus der Naturwissenschaft … (Bulletin of the most recent and most useful to know [news] from science … ), 9 : 262–263.
   • Kirchhoff (1811) Mémoires de l'Académie impériale des sciences de St. Pétersbourg, 4 : 27. From page 27: "Mr. l'Adjoint Kirchhoff présenta à la Conférence trois flacons, contenans: 1°) du Sirop produit par l'art dans quelques végétaux (la pomme de terre, le froment et le blé noir ou Sarazin), … " (Assistant [professor] Kirchhoff presented to the conference three bottles, containing: (1) syrup produced artificially from some vegetables (potato, wheat and buckwheat or Sarazin), … )
   • (Editor) (1812) "Die Verfertigung des Zuckers aus Buchweizen- und andere Mehlarten" (The manufacture of sugar from buckwheat and other flours), Bulletin des Neuesten und Wissenwürdigsten aus der Naturwissenschaft … , 10 : 88–89.
   • Кирхгоф, К. С. [Kirchhoff, C. S.] (1812) "О приготовлении сахара из крахмала" [O prigotovlenii sakhara iz krakhmala, "On the preparation of sugar from starch"], Технологический журнал [Tekhnologichesky zhurnal, Technology magazine], 9 (1) : 3–26.
2. Asimov, Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology 2nd Revised edition