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 Townsend Asa Townsend Asa Townsend (c.1775-alive 1851) was an early settler in Westminster Township near what became the City of London, Ontario. His lands ultimately became incorporated in London's Springbank Park. By the 1820s he removed westward to settle on the bank of the Ausable River in what later became Bosanquet Township in Lambton County. Here he operated a salt well. He and his wife—whose name is not known—are credited with being the first white settlers in the area of the present village of Arkona, Ontario. Asa was still living at the time of the 1851 Bosanquet Township assessment, living just