The basis for this presentation is a student notebook dated 1894-1895: <i>Farbstoffe Matieres Colorantes D’Apres Lectures de M. Dr. Noelting Directeur de l’ecole de Chimie Mulhouse</i> (Notebook of E. Greiner).The notes include almost countless chemical structures adjacent to hundreds of mounted dyed swaths and threads corresponding to the written structures.The distinguished history of this region (including Mulhouse and Basel in the Rhine region) in the development of the dye industry is well-documented. This industrial region, from which the industrial powerhouses Sandoz and Ciba emerged, called for industrial education that came to focus on dyes and pharmaceuticals. The school of chemistry in Mulhouse was inaugurated in 1822. Its first director L. Degenne, recommended by Pierre Louis Dulong and Louis Jacques Thenard, presented the first course in 1823. However, the chemistry program was deemed too costly and Degenne was relieved in 1825. Following over one-half-century of development and increasing respect the school hired Emilio Noelting (1851-1922) as its Director. Noelting, Ph.D. ETH Zurich, introduced hard chemical science, so evident in this notebook, to complement the practical dye chemistry. He is credited with notable discoveries in the dye industry including erythrosine and rose Bengal. An interesting feature of the notebook is structures of some triarylmethane halide dyes which we now know to be triphenylmethyl ("trityl") carbocation salts. Syntheses of these water-soluble salts predated Moses Gomberg's discovery of triphenylmethyl radical in 1900 and its corresponding carbocation in 1901. Noelting’s reputation was such that the precocious eighteen-year-old Alfred Werner (b. Mulhouse, 1866) submitted some research results to Noelting. Werner received the 1913 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  In 1915, Noelting’s appointment as Director was terminated by the German authorities on the grounds of being a non-German citizen. The owner of the notebook may be Charles Edouard Greiner. Born 13 December 1873, he was a Paris chemist.

Emilio Noelting, the Mulhouse chemistry school, and the development of rational dye chemistry in the Rhine region

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