Arthur Eichengrün the invention of aspirin in 1897. Impure acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, the active compound of aspirin) had been synthesized already in 1853 by French chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt; the 1897 process developed at Bayer was the first to produce pure ASA that could be used for medical purposes. Due to the rise of the Nazis in Germany, Eichengrün was unable to object when Hoffman first made the claim that "he" (Hoffman) invented aspirin, in the footnote of a 1934 German Encyclopedia. Hoffman's claim was once widely accepted, but many historians now consider it to be discredited. Eichengrün first claimed to have
Asa C. Matthews as collector of the United States Internal Revenue. In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison appointed Matthews comptroller of the United States Treasury. In 1893, Matthews wrote a vignette for the World's Fair predicting what life in the U.S. would be like 100 years in the future. His predictions were grandiose, predicting the U.S. having 60 states and controlling all of North America. Matthews died suddenly at his home in Pittsfield, Illinois. Asa C. Matthews Asa Carrington Matthews (March 22, 1833 – June 14, 1908) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. Born in Pike County, Illinois, Matthews went to the public