View source for Johann Wilhelm Ritter

{{Short description|German chemist, physicist, and philosopher (1776–1810)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Johann Wilhelm Ritter
| image             = Ritter-Johann-Wilhelm-1804.jpg
| image_size        = 200px
| caption           = Ritter in the uniform of the [[Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities|Bavarian Academy of Sciences]], about 1804.
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1776|12|16}}
| birth_place       = [[Zamienice|Samitz]], [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1810|1|23|1776|12|16}}
| death_place       = [[Munich]], [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavaria]]
| residence         = 
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = [[Germany|German]]
| ethnicity         = 
| field             = [[Chemistry|Physics]]
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| doctoral_advisor  = 
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| known_for         = [[Ultraviolet light]]<br>[[Electrolysis]]<br>[[Electroplating]]
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| influences        = 
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}}

'''Johann Wilhelm Ritter''' (16 December 1776 – 23 January 1810)<ref name="NDB">{{NDB|21|664|665|Ritter, Johann Wilhelm|Büttner, Stefan|118745468}}.</ref> was a [[Germans|German]] [[chemist]], [[physicist]] and [[philosopher]]. He is associated with the [[German Romanticism]]. He is also known for discovering the [[ultraviolet]] part of the [[electromagnetic spectrum]]. He is also credited for the first achieved sustained [[electrolysis]] of water and the discovery of [[electroplating]].

== Biography ==
He was born in [[Zamienice|Samitz]] (Zamienice) near [[Chojnów|Haynau]] (Chojnów) in [[Silesia]] (then part of [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], since 1945 in [[Poland]]), and died in [[Munich]].

=== German Romanticism ===
Ritter belonged to the [[German Romanticism|German Romantic]] movement.<ref>Walter D. Wetzels (1990), "Johann Wilhelm Ritter: Romantic Physics in Germany", in ''Romanticism and the Sciences'', eds. [[Andrew Cunningham (academic)|Andrew Cunningham]] and [[Nicholas Jardine]]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 199-212. {{ISBN|0-521-35602-4}}.</ref> He was personally acquainted with [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], [[Alexander von Humboldt]], [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] and [[Clemens Brentano]]. He was strongly influenced by [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling]], who was the main philosopher of the ''[[Naturphilosophie]]'' movement. In 1801, [[Hans Christian Ørsted]] visited Jena and became his friend. Several of Ritter's researches were later reported by Ørsted, who was also strongly influenced by the philosophical outlook of ''Naturphilosophie''.<ref name="magnetochemistry">Roberto de Andrade Martins (2007), "Ørsted, Ritter and magnetochemistry", in ''Hans Christian Ørsted and the Romantic Legacy in Science: Ideas, Disciplines, Practices'', eds. R.M. Brain, R. S. Cohen & O. Knudsen (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 241), New York: Springer, pp. 339-385. ({{ISBN|978-1-4020-2979-0}}).</ref>

=== Scientific research ===
Johann Wilhelm Ritter's first involvement with science began when he was 14 years old. He became an apprentice to an apothecary in [[Legnica|Liegnitz]] (Legnica), and acquired a deep interest in chemistry. He began medicine studies at the [[University of Jena]] in 1796. A self-taught scientist, he made many experimental researches on chemistry, electricity and other fields.<ref name="NDB" />

Ritter's first scientific researches concerned some galvanic phenomena. He interpreted the physiological effects observed by [[Luigi Galvani]] and other researchers as due to the electricity generated by chemical reactions. His interpretation is closer to the one accepted nowadays than those proposed by Galvani (“animal electricity”) and [[Alessandro Volta]] (electricity generated by metallic contact), but it was not accepted at the time. 
[[File:Ritter Wasserelektrolyse.jpg|thumb|left|240px|Illustration of an [[electrolysis]] apparatus by Ritter, 1800]]
In 1800, shortly after the invention of the [[voltaic pile]], [[William Nicholson (chemist)|William Nicholson]] and [[Anthony Carlisle]] discovered that water could be decomposed by electricity. Shortly afterward, Ritter independently discovered the same effect, independently. Besides that, he collected separately and measured the amounts of hydrogen and oxygen produced in the reaction. He also discovered the process of [[electroplating]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Johann Wilhelm Ritter {{!}} Biography & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Wilhelm-Ritter |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> In 1802 he built his first [[electrochemical cell]], with 50 copper discs separated by cardboard disks moistened by a salt solution.<ref>Hermann Berg (2008), "[http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/revpolarography/54/2/54_99/_article  Johann Wilhelm Ritter – The Founder of Scientific Electrochemistry]"{{dead link|date=December 2012}}, ''Review of Polarography'', Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 99-103.</ref><ref>Walter D. Wetzels (1978), "J. W. Ritter: The Beginnings of Electrochemistry in Germany", in: ''Selected Topics in the History of Electrochemistry'', eds. G. Dubpernell and J. H. Westbrook. Princeton: The Electrochemical Society, pp. 68-73.</ref>

Ritter made several self-experiments applying the poles of a voltaic pile to his own hands, eyes, ears, nose and tongue.<ref>Stuart Walker Strickland (1998), "The Ideology of Self-Knowledge and the Practice of Self-Experimentation", ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'', Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 453-471.</ref> He also described the difference between the physiological effects of the two poles of the pile, although some of the effects he reported were not confirmed afterwards.

Many of Ritter's researches were guided by a search for polarities in the several "forces" of nature, and for the relation between those "forces" – two of the assumptions of ''Naturphilosophie''. In 1801, after hearing about the discovery of "heat rays" ([[infrared radiation]]) by [[William Herschel]] (in 1800), Ritter looked for an opposite (cooling) radiation at the other end of the visible spectrum. He did not find exactly what he expected to find, but after a series of attempts he noticed that [[silver chloride]] was transformed faster from white to black when it was placed at the dark region of the Sun's spectrum, close to its violet end. The "chemical rays" found by him were afterwards called [[ultraviolet]] radiation.<ref>Armin Hermann (1987), "Unity and metamorphosis of forces (1800-1850): Schelling, Oersted and Faraday”, in ''Symmetries in Physics (1600-1980)'', eds. M. G. Doncel, A. Hermann, L. Michel and A. Pais. Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, pp. 51-62.</ref><ref>Jan Frercksa, Heiko Weberb, and Gerhard Wiesenfeldt (2009), "Reception and discovery: the nature of Johann Wilhelm Ritter’s invisible rays", ''Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A'', Vol. 40, No. 2, pp 143-156.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ultraviolet Waves|url=http://missionscience.nasa.gov/ems/10_ultravioletwaves.html|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127004149/http://missionscience.nasa.gov/ems/10_ultravioletwaves.html|archivedate=27 January 2011}}</ref>

Some of Ritter's researches were acknowledged as important scientific contributions, but he also claimed the discovery of many phenomena that were not confirmed by other researchers. For instance: he reported that the Earth had electric poles that could be detected by the motion of a bimetallic needle; and he claimed that he could produce the electrolysis of water using a series of magnets, instead of Volta's piles.<ref name="magnetochemistry"/>

Ritter had no regular income and never became a university professor, although in 1804 he was elected a member of the [[Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities|Bavarian Academy of Science]] (in Munich). 

=== Personal life and death ===
He married in 1804 and had four children,<ref name="NDB" /> but he was unable to provide the needs of his family. Plagued by financial difficulties and suffering from weak health (perhaps aggravated by his electrical self-experimentation),{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} he died young in 1810, as a poor man.

==See also==
*[[Timeline of hydrogen technologies]]
*[[Timeline of particle discoveries]]

==References==
<references/>

==Sources==
* [[Siegfried Zielinski]]: Electrification, tele-writing, seeing close-up: Johann Wilhelm Ritter, Joseph Chudy, and Jan Evangelista Purkyne, in: ''Deep Time of the Media. Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means'' (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008), {{ISBN|978-0-262-74032-6}}.

== External links ==
* [http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Biographies/RitterBio.htm  Johann W. Ritter]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritter, Johann Wilhelm}}
[[Category:1776 births]]
[[Category:1810 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Chojnów]]
[[Category:Natural philosophers]]
[[Category:19th-century German physicists]]
[[Category:Chemists from the Kingdom of Prussia]]
[[Category:University of Jena alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:German idealists]]
[[Category:Battery inventors]]