author
Georg Grasser
b. 1883
A chemist and technical writer from the early 20th century, he wrote a focused account of synthetic tannins just as they were becoming important to modern leather making. His work offers a glimpse of industrial chemistry in a period shaped by rapid change and postwar necessity.
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About the author
Georg Grasser, listed in library records as born in 1883, is best known for Synthetic Tannins: Their Synthesis, Industrial Production and Application, published in English in 1922. The book sits at the crossroads of chemistry and industry, explaining a new class of materials that had become increasingly important in leather production.
From the book itself, Grasser is identified as Dr. Phil., Ing. and a lecturer in tanning chemistry at the German Technical College in Brunn. In his preface, he says his work at BASF deepened his knowledge of synthetic tannins, and that after the war he served as technical consultant to the Austrian Hide and Leather Commission, advising the trade.
Not much biographical detail is easy to confirm beyond those professional roles, but his surviving work shows a practical scientific mind: someone interested not just in theory, but in how chemistry could be applied in factories and workshops. For readers today, his writing captures a moment when industrial research was quickly reshaping everyday materials.