Albert Hofmann First Synthesizes LSD
Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD at Sandoz in Basel on November 16, 1938, while researching compounds related to ergot.
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The Event
Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD at Sandoz in Basel on November 16, 1938, while researching compounds related to ergot.
The Wider Story
The initial synthesis did not immediately reveal the substance's unusual psychological effects. Those became apparent in 1943 when Hofmann returned to the compound.
Putting the Event in Perspective
The two dates are often confused.
Reading the Historical Record
This anniversary concerns laboratory synthesis, not the later bicycle journey or the counterculture, and a recreation should contain no instructions for producing or consuming the substance.
About the Historical Recreation
The accompanying visual is an illustrative reconstruction: a late-1930s Swiss chemistry laboratory with closed glassware and an anonymous scientist at a desk. It is not authentic archival footage, an eyewitness record or additional evidence for the event.
Sources
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