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Chemical & Product GuidesAug 31, 202617 min read

Elixir Sulfanilamide: The 1937 Poisoning That Created the FDA — and the Glycol Mix-Up That Still Kills

Elixir Sulfanilamide was a raspberry-flavored liquid antibiotic sold by the S.E. Massengill Company of Bristol, Tennessee, in September 1937. Its solvent was diethylene glycol (DEG, CAS...

Chemical & Product GuidesAug 20, 202615 min read

Potash: The Chemical Behind America’s First Patent — and What It Became

Potash is the family name for water-soluble potassium salts, originally potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃) leached from wood ash in iron pots — the origin of both the...

Water & EnvironmentalAug 19, 202613 min read

Ignaz Semmelweis: The Doctor Who Discovered Handwashing — and the Chlorine That Proved Him Right

Ignaz Semmelweis (1818–1865) was the Hungarian obstetrician who introduced antiseptic handwashing in 1847 at the Vienna General Hospital, requiring doctors to scrub in chlorinated lime solution...

Chemical & Product GuidesAug 17, 202614 min read

Who Discovered Ammonia? The Salt of Ammon and a 1,900-Year-Old Naming Mistake

Ammonia is a nitrogen-hydrogen compound with the formula NH3 and CAS number 7664-41-7. It was first isolated as a gas by Joseph Priestley in 1774, named...

Water & EnvironmentalAug 14, 202615 min read

Who Discovered Chlorine? The 1774 Green Gas That Became Sodium Hypochlorite

Sodium hypochlorite is the sodium salt of hypochlorous acid, with the chemical formula NaOCl and CAS number 7681-52-9. It was first produced in 1820 by Antoine...

Articles

Elixir Sulfanilamide: The 1937 Poisoning That Created the FDA — and the Glycol Mix-Up That Still Kills

Potash: The Chemical Behind America’s First Patent — and What It Became

Ignaz Semmelweis: The Doctor Who Discovered Handwashing — and the Chlorine That Proved Him Right

Who Discovered Ammonia? The Salt of Ammon and a 1,900-Year-Old Naming Mistake

Who Discovered Chlorine? The 1774 Green Gas That Became Sodium Hypochlorite

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