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chemists studied gas liquefaction and in particular that of CO2.
During these activities, which resulted in his first publi-
Friedrich Wöhler (1800 1882), the future discoverer cation, he was the victim of a very serious accident in
of urea, was attracted to chemistry when he was very the laboratory (Jacques, 1987). Following an explosion,
young. Through his father he met a friend who had a rich a fragment of glass cut his cornea in two. He was taken
chemical library and a small private laboratory where he home, where his father, a doctor, put ice on his eye. The
obtained permission to work. He built a voltaic battery scar remained with him throughout his life.
out of zinc plates and some old Russian copper coins he Among other things, Berthelot studied the thermo-
had collected. He also built a furnace (his sister helped chemistry of explosives (Berthelot, 1872) and must have
him to use the bellows to feed the fire). During this juv- had more than one incident. In a note of 1894, in collab-
enile activity he burned his fingers with phosphorus, and oration with P. Vieille (the true inventor of the calori-
on another occasion was almost killed when a flask con- metric bomb) he underlined an accident that happened
taining chlorine exploded in his hands (Tilden, 1917). to a certain Chenel, during experimentation with mer-
From chemistry history books (Moore, 1931) we learn cury azide (Berthelot & Vieille, 1894):
that even Justus Liebig (1803 1873) from a very early
age had the same passion as Wöhler for chemistry. When
by its explosive properties, the mercury azide must
he was a student about 16 years old at high school, he
be extremely similar to fulminate. Unfortunately, an
already enjoyed making chemical experiments. Unfortu-
explosion which has occurred under unexpected con-
nately he played with silver fulminate that one day
ditions appeared to indicate that it was more sensitive
exploded in the classroom causing considerable damage.
and consequently more dangerous. Mr Chenel has
He was expelled with the verdict that he was hope-
been seriously injured which obliged us to stop
lessly useless .
these studies.
Several years later (when he was interested in the iso-
morphism of cyanate and silver fulminate) he was the
victim of another explosion. On that occasion Liebig
almost lost his eyesight when a sample of fulminic acid
exploded under his nose and he was sent to hospital to
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