Samuel GuthrieDied 19 Oct 1848 (born 1782).American chemist and physician who first discovered chloroform. He also invented the percussion priming powder for firearms, which superseded flints. He performed experiments in a laboratory near his house, and had a mill about a mile away for manufacturing large quantities of this powder and other explosives (e.g., potassium chlorate and mercury fulminate). In 1830 he devised a process that rapidly converted potato starch into molasses. He made chloroform in 1831 by distilling chloride of lime with alcohol in a copper vessel, prior to the independent discoveries of Soubeiran (France,1831) and Justus Liebig (Germany, 1832). Guthrie used chloroform during an amputation surgery in his hometown of Sackets Harbor, N.Y.« |
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