Peter Desaga
German engineer
Peter Desaga was a German instrument maker at the University of Heidelberg who worked with Robert Bunsen. Collaborating with Bunsen in 1855 on interior facilities for the new chemical laboratory at the university, Desaga perfected an earlier design of the laboratory burner by Michael Faraday into the Bunsen burner.
Neither Desaga nor Bunsen patented the design, and many imitations were marketed.
The Bunsen burner was essential to the invention of the spectroscope by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff.
Peter Desaga's son, Carl Desaga, founded C. Desaga.
Notes
References
Douglas Allchin writing for SHiPS, University of Minnesota. In the Shadows of Giants - remarks on "the tradition of professional credit". Retrieved June 6, 2005.
Williams, Kathryn R., A Burning Issue. J. Chem.
“Peter Desaga” enters the record as german engineer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Peter, Desaga and German can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Peter Desaga” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Peter, Desaga and German provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 23, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q446392. VIAF identifies the subject as 56163092008295070001. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1855 and 2005.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Peter Desaga”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Peter Desaga primary sources, Peter Desaga archive and Peter research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Peter Desaga”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Peter Desaga” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.