20 Facts About Richard Abegg

Richard Wilhelm Heinrich Abegg was a German chemist and pioneer of valence theory.

Richard Abegg proposed that the difference of the maximum positive and negative valence of an element tends to be eight.

Richard Abegg was a gas balloon enthusiast, which caused his death at the age of 41 when he crashed in his balloon in Silesia.

Richard Abegg learned organic chemistry from Hofmann, but one year after finishing his PhD degree he began researching physical chemistry while studying with Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig, Germany.

Richard Abegg later served as private assistant to Walther Nernst at the University of Gottingen and to Svante Arrhenius at the Stockholm University.

Richard Abegg discovered the theory of freezing-point depression and anticipated Gilbert Newton Lewis's octet rule by revealing that the lowest and highest oxidation states of elements often differ by eight.

Richard Abegg researched many topics in physical chemistry, including freezing points, the dielectric constant of ice, osmotic pressures, oxidation potentials, and complex ions.

Richard Abegg was the son of Wilhelm Abegg and Margarete Friedenthal.

Richard Abegg had a brother, Wilhelm Abegg, who became the Prussian Secretary of State.

Richard Abegg was the initiator and chairman of the Silesian Club for Aeronautics in Breslau.

On 3 April 1910, Richard Abegg flew from Breslau to Koslin in a balloon; at the end of the flight, the balloon's basket caught in some bushes during the landing, resulting in Richard Abegg being thrown out and striking his head.

Richard Abegg made many scientific observations during his subsequent flights, which were never published.

In 1894, Richard Abegg worked as an assistant to Walther Nernst, one of the founders of physical chemistry and, at the time, Professor of Physical Chemistry.

Two years later, Richard Abegg was promoted to a Privatdozent.

Richard Abegg is known best for his research recognizing the role that valence had with respect to chemical interactions.

Richard Abegg found that some elements were less likely to combine into molecules, and from this concluded that the more stable elements had what are now called full electron shells.

Richard Abegg was able to explain the attraction of atoms through opposite electrical charges.

Richard Abegg made the distinction between normal valence and contravalence.

Richard Abegg found that the sum of these two valences always comes to eight, a rule that is known as Abegg's rule.

Richard Abegg was the editor of Zeitschrift fur Elektrochemie from 1901 until his death.