Caro, Nikodem

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CARO, NIKODEM

CARO, NIKODEM (1871–1935), chemist. Born in Lodz, he received his doctorate in Berlin and then set up his own laboratory for industrial chemistry. Subsequently, he became a director of the Bavarian Stickstoffwerke A.G. His main area of research was calcium carbide and acetylene, and he was the chief developer of this field, which grew to major importance in the German chemical industry. The Caro method for assaying calcium carbide is still the official German standard. With Adolf Frank, he discovered the fixation of nitrogen by its reaction with calcium carbide to form calcium cyanamide, which is still an important fertilizer, although it declined in relative importance after World War ii. Much of the manufacture of cyanamid is still carried out in "Frank-Caro" ovens. Caro took out numerous patents and wrote Handbuch fuer Acetylen (1904).

bibliography:

Chemiker Zeitung, 40 (1916), 569.

[Samuel Aaron Miller]