Andreas Sigismund Marggraf

Who was Andreas Sigismund Marggraf?

Andreas Sigismund Marggraf was a German chemist from Berlin, then capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and a pioneer of analytical chemistry. He isolated zinc in 1746 by heating calamine and carbon. Though he was not the first to do so, Marggraf is credited with carefully describing the process and establishing its basic theory. In 1747, Marggraf announced his discovery of sugar in beets and devised a method using alcohol to extract it. His student Franz Achard later devised an economical industrial method to extract the sugar in its pure form.