Hungarian Heritage Review, 1988 (17. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1988-01-01 / 1. szám
— —— jjjpenal (3[mture-©f-@l|e-(jEmttl|^^===^= HUNGARIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO WORLD CIVILIZATION- by -DR. FRANCIS S. WAGNER CHEMISTRY Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, progress was very slow in chemistry, one of the reasons being that the country’s industrial development did not show any encouraging signs and Hungary for a long period of time did not raise even its agricultural production to a considerable level. It is by no means surprising that under these circumstances chemistry could not be regarded as an independent branch of science but was associated with medicine. The first Hungarian book on chemistry was written by a physician, Ferenc Nyúlás (1758-1808). His book dealt with the chemical analysis of medicinal waters of Transylvania (Az erdelyorszagi orvosi vizeknek bontásáról. Kolozsvár, 1800). Nyúlás thus adopted and popularized the trend of chemical analysis. In addition, Ferenc Nyúlás was one of the discoverers of manganese and described it long before Klaproth. In spite of Nyúlás’ work, chemistry remained a neglected branch of scientific activities for decades afterwards. Only a few individuals like Janos Irinyi (1819-1895) devoted some research to it. Irinyi conducted experiments which led to the invention and improvement of phosphorous matches. Real progress came only in the second half of the nineteenth century, and was ushered in by Móric Preysz (1829, Sopron — 1877, Budapest) who studied at Pest and in Vienna. Preysz demonstrated as early as 1861 that the post-fermentation of the Tokaji wine (popularized in the United States under the name “Tokay”) can be prevented if it is heated in a closed vessel at temperature of 70-80 C° which is then kept airtight. He demonstrated this method of preventing post-fermentation in Tokaji wine at the 1862 general meeting of the winemaking society of the Hegyalja region (Hegyaljai Bormivelo Egyesület) thus preceding by years Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) who presented his process of pasteurization only in 1865. The scientific world could not take cognizance of Móric Preysz’ process because his relevant articles appeared in Hungarian periodicals (“Velemeny es indítvány a borok megtoresenek elharitasara Nezve,” Gazdasági Lapok, 1859; “Néhány szó azon modokrol, melyek a bor romlásának meggátolására szolgainak,” Gazdasági Lapok, 1862; “A tokaji bor Utoerjedesenek meggatlasarol,” Termtud. Közi, 1865). Systematic and organized research in chemistry began with Karoly Than (1834, Obecse — 1908, Budapest). Obtaining his doctorate in chemistry in 1858 he then spent a year in Heidelberg as Bunsen’s disciple after which his attention turned to physical chemistry and gasometry. From 1860 Than taught chemistry at Pest University, and in 1872 he established the No. 1 Institute of Chemistry at Pest University which in a while raised to European fame. Karoly Than was instrumental in founding the Magyar Kémiai Folyóirat (Hungarian Periodical of Chemistry) in which outstanding and innovative articles have been published ever since. He was the first to discover carbonoxysulphide in the gases of the Harkany medicinal waters and later derived it experimentally. His methods for gas analysis were precise and his methods for volumetric analysis were internationally acclaimed and accepted. Furthermore, Than proved the atomic structure of electricity and his definition of chemical affinity was adopted verbatim as a model. As the founder of up-to-date higher education in chemistry in the country, Than established a school which trained the next generation of chemists. His main works include treatises on the unity of the volumetry of molecular weights (A molekulasulyok térfogatának egysegéről. Budapest, 1888); rudiments of qualitative chemical analysis (A qualitativ chemiai analysis elemei. Budapest, 1895.) In the second half of the nineteenth century the country’s industrialization process — though being in an embryonic phase — brought about progress in several branches of the applied sciences, among them the field of chemical technology. Vince Wartha (1844-1914), a Bunsen disciple and from 1867 on professor of chemical technology at Budapest University of Technical Sciences, kept abreast of Western scientific advances. He specialized in the application of theoretical results in, for instance, wine chemistry, city water supply, ceramic manufacture, to mention a few. Vince Wartha pioneered in the analysis of eosin and devised a very good method for manufacturing eosin-glazed pottery. Vilmos Zsolnay (1828-1900) introduced Wartha’s process in his porcelain and faience factory at Pecs in 1867 and started decorating earthenware with eosin glaze. As a result the Zsolnay products became world famous within a very short period of time. Vince Wartha published many books and articles in his native Hungarian and German in Hungary and elsewhere. His first monograph appeared as early as 1867 in Zurich under the title Die qualitative Analyse mit Anwendung der Bunsenschen Flammenreaktionen which was translated into French in 1877. The most talented member of Karoly Than’s school was Lajos Winkler (1863-1939) whose doctoral dissertation discussed the determination of oxygen dissolved in water (A vízben feloldott oxigén meghatarozasa, 1888). The method, described in his dissertation, is known as “Winkler’s iodometric determination” and has become a classic in chemical analysis. Lajos Winkler acquired world fame by many of his accomplishments: interception of ammonia in tartaric acid solution, laying down new foundations for weight analysis, determination of the “Winkler’s correlation” between the stability and inner friction of gases, etc. Owing to Winkler’s determination of iodide and bromide, the analytics of halogens has since been considered in a world context to be a distinctively Hungarian branch of science. Winkler’s process for iodine and bromine determination is even now widely applied. Several leading Hungarian chemists of the twentieth century were trained by Winkler. He published over 200 articles in foreign and Hungarian periodicals. His handbook dealing with chemical laboratory investigations was internationally acknowledged (Unter—continued next page 20 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW JANUARY 1988
