), was a German agricultural scientist, soil scientist, geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

, journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and mineralogist. He was the pioneer of oil production.

Life

Meyn was born in Pinneberg

Pinneberg

Pinneberg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, capital of the district Pinneberg in Germany. The town has 42,301 inhabitants. Pinneberg is located 18 km northwest of Hamburg....

, the son of Adolf Meyn, general practitioner

General practitioner

A general practitioner is a medical practitioner who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. They have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues and comorbidities...

 and later professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 and director of the Clinical Institute of the University of Kiel

University of Kiel

The University of Kiel is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 23,000 students today...

 and attended the public school in Pinneberg from 1826. After the move to Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 in 1840, he started a degree in natural sciences in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, where he also assisted the chemist Richard Felix Marchand

Richard Felix Marchand

Richard Felix Marchand was a German chemist. His son was the physician Felix Marchand ....

. As a private instructor for rock and soil science, he taught at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, while also working as a teacher of natural sciences at Kiel High School. There he promoted natural and local history.

The exploration of the underlying geological structure in his home country and dissemination of research results was his goal. He taught his students the importance of agricultural chemistry

Agricultural chemistry

Agricultural chemistry is the study of both chemistry and biochemistry which are important in agricultural production, the processing of raw products into foods and beverages, and in environmental monitoring and remediation...

, founded by Justus von Liebig

Justus von Liebig

Justus von Liebig was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and worked on the organization of organic chemistry. As a professor, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the...

. His approach was to demonstrate to the generally sceptical farmers the need to enrich the soil through deliberate artificial fertilizers to restore nutrients withdrawn by the growing of crops. Meyn lived mainly in Uetersen

Uetersen

Uetersen ) is a city in the district of Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approx. south of Elmshorn, and northwest of Hamburg at the small river Pinnau, close to the Elbe river...

. He was co-founder and financial donor to the Bleeker-Stift hospital in Uetersen. On 4 November 1878 he died of a stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

 he suffered on a business trip to Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

.

His name today

In his honor, Uetersen named a school after him (Ludwig-Meyn-Gymnasium). In 1952, the journal "Meyniana" of the Geological-Palaeontological Institute in Kiel was named after him. Also bearing his name is Ludewig-Meyn-Straße, a street on the campus of the Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, where the Department of Geology is located. Streets are also named after Meyn in Pinneberg, Halstead

Halstead

Halstead is a town and civil parish located in Braintree District of Essex, England, near Colchester and Sudbury. It has a population of 11,053. The town is situated in the Colne Valley, and originally developed on the hill to the north of the river...

 and Uetersen.

Geological work

From 1846 he studied the production of indigenous raw materials such as gypsum

Gypsum

Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...

 and lime in the Segeberger Kalkberg

Segeberger Kalkberg

The Kalkberg is a 91-metre-high rock in the center of Bad Segeberg. The name is a misnomer as it is not made of limestone , but from gypsum .-Geology:...

 and Lieth

Lieth

Lieth is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany....

. Meyn simultaneously collected over 1500 rock samples from all over Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

 as specimens, these still form the foundation of the Geological Collection of the state university. In the spring of 1856, Meyn began with simple hand tools, the first drilling for oil in Dithmarschen

Dithmarschen

Dithmarschen is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, and Steinburg, by the state of Lower Saxony , and by the North Sea.-Geography:The district is located on the North Sea...

, three years before Edwin L. Drake, tapped the first oil well in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. It was the first ever drilling for oil, but without much success: Meyn found only bituminous sands and oil pastels. The Danish king later granted him the exploitation rights for the bituminous sands, which produced from 1858 bitumen, axle grease and petroleum.

In the years 1875−76 he was lead geologist for the exploaratory mudflat

Mudflat

Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides or rivers. They are found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons, and estuaries. Mudflats may be viewed geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, resulting from deposition of...

 silt

Silt

Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...

 drilling for the construction of the Hindenburgdamm

Hindenburgdamm

The Hindenburgdamm is an 11 km-long causeway joining the North Frisian island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein. Its coordinates are . It was opened on 1 June 1927 and is exclusively a railway corridor...

. Planned to start as early as 1913 on the basis of Meyn's positive findings, construction on the project was delayed though war and other setbacks until 1923.

Agricultural science

Beginning in 1854, Meyn founded a factory for building and fertilizers in an old sawmill in Uetersen. After a fire resulting from an explosion at the end of 1860 the sawmill and the lime production was abandoned. He later formed it into a factory for chemical fertilizers. Through his factory, he wanted to bring to fruition the ideas of Justus von Liebig. He particularly pointed to the use of bone meal produced by him. It was an organic fertilizer rich in lime, nitrogen and phosphoric acid.

Journalism and poetry

In 1854 he started as an employee at the Itzehoer Nachrichten publishing company. There he gave the public his expertise on home soil types, animal and plant sciences and the use of artificial fertilizers.

As a poet, he produced an assortment of poems in 1843, during his student days. In 1865 he published a dramatic piece, A Five Hour Adventure, under a British proposal. Another publication was My Uncle, the Mayor.

External links