Andreas Sigismund Marggraf:

Andreas Sigismund Marggraf was a German chemist.

Birth:

March 3, 1709 in Berlin, Germany

Death:

August 7, 1782 in Berlin, Germany

Claim to Fame:

Marggraf was a German chemist who is best known for the discovery of sugar in beets and developing a process to remove it. He also discovered phosphoric acid and disproved the idea that alkaloids soda ash (calcium carbonate) and potash (potassium carbonate) were identical.

Marggraf introduced several analytical techniques such as flame tests to identify alkali metals and the precipitation method to detect the presence of iron. He also independently isolated pure zinc metal.