author
Eduard Farber
1892–1969
Best known for writing lively, learned books on the history of chemistry, this Austrian-American scholar also spent decades as an industrial chemist and inventor. His work bridges the laboratory and the long human story behind scientific ideas.
1 Audiobook
History of Phosphorus
by Eduard Farber
About the author
Born in Brody, Galicia, on April 17, 1892, and raised in Leipzig, he studied chemistry, physics, and mineralogy there and earned his doctorate in 1916. He later became an Austrian-American industrial chemist as well as a historian of chemistry, writing under the names Eduard Farber, Eduard Färber, and Eduard Faerber.
Farber built a substantial scientific career in industry before devoting much of his later life to historical writing. A biographical note from the American Chemical Society’s history of chemistry materials says that by the time he retired in 1957, he held more than 85 patents and had published about 50 research papers.
He is especially remembered for books that helped make the history of chemistry accessible to wider readers, including The Evolution of Chemistry and the edited volume Great Chemists. In 1964 he received the Dexter Award for his contributions to the history of chemistry. He died on July 15, 1969.