Technikatörténeti szemle 19. (1992)

KÖNYVISMERTETÉS - Papers of the First „MINERALKONTOR” International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Veszprém, 12-16 August, 1991)

following. He planned — and realized as well — „an electric battery consisting of 8 Leyden jars from which — if the charged jars are connected together according to the scheme of voltaic cells — some 2 feet long discharge lightning sparks can be obtained." He was encouraged to make his invention public; sent his work to Poggendorf in Berlin but his paper has never been published. Poggendorf patronized him in a letter stating that Jedlik's invention was not a novelty and that even he himself had constructed a device like that. This incident negatively influenced Jedlik, who was a reticent person and this contributed to his reluctance to publish further accounts of his work. This was probably the reason why many of his inventions remained hidden until others reinvented them and published the results. The date of preparation of the manuscript can be traced back to between 1847 and 1851 based on the fact that it reports of Boutigny's freezing experiment published in 1847 in the April issue of the Polytechn. Journal, and that Vilmos Goldsmidt's lithographic book on thermodynamics was published in 1851 based on Jedlik's manuscript. In the fourties Jedlik planned to compile a more comprehensive work on natural science, a book of university standard with Hungarian technical terms as well. Unfortunately, only the first part of the book appeared in printed form with the following complete title: „The Fundamentals of Natural Science by Ányos Jedlik, member of the Benedictine order at Pannonhalma, professor of natural science at the University of Pest. With several xylographs printed in the text. Volume 1. The Science of Heavy Bodies. With 384 xylographs printed in the text. At Pest. Copyright by the author. A consignment of Gusztáv Emich, 1850. Printed at Pest in Eisenfels' press". A tide, which is not really short, but at that time it was common. In the preface Jedlik announced that if his effort ..receives some appreciation from the readers" he would be ..enormously inspired" to elaborate and publish the „Science of Weightless Bodies" as well. The ..Thermodynamics" would have been a part of it. However, the manuscript of 66 pages kept at Pannonhalma cannot be considered the continuation of the „Fundamentals of Natural Science", or — had it been so — it would have been considerably extended later. The manuscript is divided into five chapters having the following titles: „On the Degrees of Heat", „On the Propagation of Heat", „On the Heat Capacity of Bodies", „On the Operation of Heat", and „On the Sources of Heat." When making a judgement of the ..Thermodynamics", it should be taken into account that it is not a manuscript prepared for the press. It has been mentioned many times that it is „to be presented orally". He did not even mention the steam engines which evidently interested the experimentalist Jedlik. To briefly characterize the manuscript it can be said that it is devoted to chemical thermodynamics except for the parts dealing with chemical reactions. One should speak about the style of the work separately. There was a period in the first half of the previous century when linguists wanted to eliminate the foreign words from the Hungarian language. This was what we call the language reform. In the language of ..Thermodynamics" the effect of the language reform is strikingly perceptible. Foreign words are avoided, although — as an explanation — Latin expressions are given in par an theses. This period of the Hungarian scientific language did not last long. In the book written in 1854 and tit-