Friedrich Accum

Friedrich Christian Accum or Frederick Accum was a German chemist, whose most important achievements included advances in the field of gas lighting, efforts to keep processed foods free from dangerous additives, and the promotion of interest in the science of chemistry to the general populace. From 1793 to 1821 Accum lived in London. Following an apprenticeship as an apothecary, he opened his own commercial laboratory enterprise. His business manufactured and sold a variety of chemicals and laboratory equipment. Accum, himself, gave feebased public lectures in practical chemistry and collaborated with research efforts at numerous other institutes of science.

Accum was born in Bckeburg, SchaumburgLippe, about 50160km west of Hanover. His father was from Vlotho, and had been in an infantry regiment in the service of Count Wilhelm von SchaumburgLippe. In 1755, Accums father converted from Judaism to Protestant Christianity. Soon after, his father married Judith Berth dit La Motte in Bckeburg. Judith was the daughter of a hat maker, who resided in the French community in Berlin, and the granddaughter of a refugee who suffered under the Huguenot persecutions in France.

Source: Wikipedia