Momme Andresen
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Dr. Momme Andresen |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
17 October 1857 Risum, Duchy of Schleswig, Denmark |
| Died | 12 January 1951 (aged 93) Dagebüll, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Inventing Rodinal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Academic advisors | Rudolf Schmitt |
Momme Andresen (17 October 1857 - 12 January 1951) was a Danish-German industrial research chemist. His main area of work was to formulate better developers and fixers for black-and-white photographs.
Andresen attended a Volksschule (a local state school) in Niebüll, Schleswig-Holstein, near his birthplace. He studied chemistry at the Technische Hochschule Dresden under Rudolf Schmitt. After doctoral studies at the University of Jena, he returned to Dresden to work as Schmitt's assistant.
His first independent scientific work was to determine the structure of the dyestuff safranin, for the German chemical company Cassella. Around that time, he also discovered "Andresen's acid". He worked for some years in Buffalo, New York. In 1887, he took employment at Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilinfabrikation (modern AGFA) in Berlin as a dyestuff chemist.
He was already a keen amateur photographer. He had used, and was dissatisfied with, developers based on hydroquinone (which had been introduced in 1880). In 1889, AGFA set up a photographic research unit in Berlin, with Andresen as its head. His goal was to devise photographic developers which could be stored as stable liquid concentrates which could be diluted for use when needed, rather than having to be made up from several ingredients on the spot. He worked on formulations based on p-phenylenediamine and p-aminophenol, among other aromatic amines. He discovered a useful formulation based on p-aminophenol. On 27 January 1891, a German patent application describing and claiming it was filed. That application was granted as German patent DE 60,174. Corresponding patents were granted in other countries, including FR 211,243, GB 1,736/1891 and US 477,486. AGFA commercialised the formulation under the trade name Rodinal. Rodinal was still in use more than a century after its invention.
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