Robert Bunsen

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Robert Bunsen

Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (30 march 1811 - 16 august 1899) was a German chemist. With his laboratory assistant Peter Desaga, he developed the Bunsen burner, an improvement on the laboratory burners then in use.


In Conan Doyle fictions

An Exciting Christmas Eve (1883)

  • There was a piece of guncotton which could not have weighed less than a couple of pounds, coarse cotton, starch, various acids, a Bunsen burner, tubes of fulminate of mercury, some dynamite powder, and a large pitcher of water. (212)

[SH] A Study in Scarlet (1887)

  • When meeting Sherlock Holmes at St. Barts Hospital, Dr. Watson described the room : « Broad, low tables were scattered about, which bristled with retorts, test-tubes, and little Bunsen lamps with their blue flickering flames. » (85)

[SH] The Sign of Four (1888)

  • Within Bartholomew Sholto's chamber : « A double line of glass-stoppered bottles was drawn up upon the wall opposite the door, and the table was littered over with Bunsen burners, test-tubes, and retorts. » (822)

The Doings of Raffles Haw (1891)

  • « Robert's eyes, as he glanced around, lit on vast wheels, complicated networks of wire, stands, test-tubes, coloured bottles, graduated glasses, Bunsen burners, porcelain insulators, and all the varied debris of a chemical and electrical workshop. » (1676)

[SH] The Adventure of the Naval Treaty (1893)

  • Sherlock Holmes side-table had : « A large curved retort was boiling furiously in the bluish flame of a Bunsen burner, and the distilled drops were condensing into a two-litre measure. » (34)


In Conan Doyle articles