Franz (Karl) Achard - Publications

Chemist, born in Berlin, Germany. He took up Andreas Marggraf's discovery of sugar in beet, and perfected a process for its extraction on a commercial scale, then in 1801 opened the first beet sugar factory, in Silesia.

Franz Karl Achard (April 28, 1753, Berlin - April 20, 1821, Wohlau-Cunern) was a German (Prussian) chemist, physicist and biologist.

Achard was born in Berlin, the son of preacher Max Guillaume Achard and his wife Marguerite Elisabeth (Rouppert). At the age of 20, Achard entered the "Circle of Friends of Natural Sciences" and met Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, then director of the physical classes at the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Achard was a favorite of King Frederick II of Prussia, and was directly reported to the King on his research twice a week. About a study on the influence of electricity on mental capabilities, Frederick II was reported to have said: If he is able to provide reason for the half wits in my Prussian states using electricity, then he is worth more than his own weight in gold.

In 1776 Achard was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin.

Achard revived the discovery by Marggraf in 1747 that sugar beets contained sugar, and devised a process to produce sugar from sugar beets.

In 1801, with the support of King Friedrich Wilhelm III, he opened the first sugar beet refinery in Wohlau-Cunern, Silesia, Prussia.

English sugar merchants offered Achard 200,000 taler to declare his experiments a failure, but refused. With Achards discovery, sugar was no longer a luxury product, but became available for everyone.

In 1794, Achard built an optical telegraph between Spandau and Bellevue.

Due to the economical incapacity of Achard, and several fires caused by technological shortcomings, his refineries were declared bankrupt in 1815.

Publications

Lectures on Experimental Philosophy 4 vol., 1792 Abhandlung über die Bereitung des Zuckers aus der in vielen Provinzen allerhöchst - Dero Staaten, als Viehfutter häufig angebauten Runkelrübe, nebst den dazu gehörigen Belägen und Proben des Runkelrübenzuckers, Berlin, 1799 Anleitung zur Bereitung des Rohzuckers aus Rüben, Berlin, 1800 Kurze Geschichte der Beweise der Ausführbarkeit im Großen der Zuckerfabrication aus Runkelrüben, Berlin, 1800 Anleitung zum Anbau der Runkelrüben, Breslau, 1803 Über den Einfluß der Runkelrübenzuckerfabrication auf die Ökonomie, Glogau, 1805 Die europäische Zuckerfabrication aus Runkelrüben, Leipzig, 1812