Fritz Klatte

Fritz Klatte (28 March 1880, Diepholz – 11 February 1934) was a German chemist and the discoverer of polyvinyl acetate, with German patent (GP 281687 1912) for its preparation from acetylene gas.^[1]

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was discovered by French physicist Henri Victor Regnault, and German physicist Eugen Baumann. Klatte designed the production process, although never successfully commercialised it. Klatte is sometimes incorrectly attributed to be the discoverer or inventor of PVC.

Notes

1. See:
   (1) Deutsche Reichs Patent no. 281687 (4 July 1913), an abstract of which appears in the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry (London), vol. 34, page 623 (1915);
   (2) Deutsche Reichs Patent no. 281688 (2 April 1914);
   (3) British patent no. 15271 (25 June 1914.);
   (4) Fritz Klatte and Adolf Rollett, "Plastic composition and process of producing it," U.S. Patent 1,241,738 (filed: July 3, 1914; issued: Oct. 2, 1917), an abstract of which appears in the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry (London), vol. 36, page 1185 (1917).

For further biographical information (including photo), see (in German): Erfinder(Inventor): Fritz Klatte, 1913 - PVC.

External links

• Works by or about Fritz Klatte at Internet Archive