August Kekulé

Architect of structural organic chemistry who saw benzene as a ring — famously, in a reverie of a snake.

Core Principles & Analysis

• His 1858 structural theory made tetravalent carbon chains the grammar of organic chemistry.
• In 1865 he proposed benzene’s six-carbon ring, solving aromatic chemistry’s central riddle.
• He later told of daydreaming an ouroboros — a snake seizing its own tail — before the ring idea.

Specifications & Metrics

• ERA: 1829 – 1896