Extra audio story: of Odol and silicone

Dr Richard Seifert was considered a "chemist by the grace of God" due to his enormous abilities. He invented Ester Salol and thought that it could be used as a mouthwash. He developed the recipe on a Sunday afternoon - probably more for fun than anything else - and gave it to his friend Karl August Lingner. He happily adopted it and immediately had an ingenious idea for marketing it. He called it Odol and sold it in the characteristic bottle with the neck bent at right angles. Lingner became so rich with Odol that he was not only able to have a villa built on the Loschwitz hillside, but also founded a museum: the German Hygiene Museum.

Another very talented chemist at the Heyden factory was Richard Müller. Müller was given a great deal of freedom when it came to the subject of his research. He had been working on silicon chemistry for some time, which until then had only been pursued scientifically and not commercially. Müller succeeded in alternately coupling silicon atoms with oxygen atoms, resulting in the formation of ring and chain polymers. This made it possible to achieve the quality and yield required for commercial purposes. Almost at the same time, the chemist Eugen Rochow from the USA also discovered the principle, which was henceforth known as the Müller-Rochow synthesis. The two met at a symposium in Dresden in 1963 and became friends.