Nationality German Residence Germany Name Gottfried Beireis Known for Cinnabar | Role Chemist Doctoral advisor Lorenz Heister | |
 | ||
Born 2 March 1730
Free imperial city of Muhlhausen, Holy Roman Empire ( 1730-03-02 ) Fields Physicist, chemist, and physician Institutions University of Helmstedt Alma mater University of Helmstedt Other academic advisors Georg Erhardt Hamberger Doctoral students Christian Heinrich Bunger Died September 18, 1809, Helmstedt, Germany People also search for Lorenz Heister, Lorenz Florenz Friedrich von Crell, Christian Heinrich Bunger, Justus Christian Loder | ||
Education University of Helmstedt | ||
Gottfried Christoph Beireis (2 March 1730 – 18 September 1809) was a German chemist and doctor. He was also a collector of curiosities who rescued some of Jacques de Vaucanson's automata.
Biography
Beireis was born in Mühlhausen. He taught anatomy, medicine, surgery, chemistry, botany, natural history, pharmacy, mineralogy, metallurgy, agriculture, forestry, music, painting, and numismatics.
As a student, he discovered a way to convert ammonium sulfide to cinnabar and made a fortune selling the latter as a red dye.
Beireis was a student of Georg Erhardt Hamberger's in Jena in 1753. Beireis became a professor in 1759 without having obtained his MD degree; the degree was awarded subsequently for work done at Helmstadt under Lorenz Heister between 1756 and 1759.
He died in Helmstedt.