ABSTRACT
Opportunities to translate research into industrial applications were always present, yet few academics took advantage of them. The few who did were a distinct and unusual minority. In early nineteenth-century Germany, several instances have been noted of ill-paid chemistry professors initiating commercial ventures, and supervising production processes, to supplement their incomes. One entrepreneurial effort stands out from these mundane ventures, Liebig’s mid-ninteenth-century use of chemical theory to develop an artificial fertilizer. Although unsuccessful, this venture represented a significant precursor of contemporary academic efforts to originate marketable products.
