Technikatörténeti szemle 22. (1996)

Papers from the Second International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Eger, Hungary, 16–19 August, 1995) - Palló, Gábor: Early Research on Radioactivity in Hungary

Institutional aspects Although he could not very much contribute to the growing international radioactivity market, Lengyel established the first school of this field in his homeland. As his failure was partly due to the uncertain methods for the indication of radioactive rays, his students did research mostly in the methods of measurement, particularly, in the methods that can be used for analyzing the radioactive components in minerals and mineral waters. This can be considered a typical behavior of the peripheral scientific community. They tried to work out good methods, which could have been successful in the international scientific and not so scientific market, but the results of these methods could mostly be sold on their home knowledge market only. On this latter they became successful and analyzed the active components in many popular mineral waters in Hungary.

5 The new field did not fit into the organizational pattern of sciences in Hungary. This fact had institutional and scientific career consequences. This pattern and the whole scientific system: the degrees, positions, civil service status, faculties, institutes and chairs, followed the German modell, since German scientific community was regarded the center of science in general. As it was difficult to decide whether radioactivity was physics or a particular field of chemistry, it became even more difficult to find a suitable institutional position to it, not to mention the agreeable location. The Budapest University had a structure, which involved institutes of different branches of science. Physics was exclusively owned by Loránd Eötvös, who was engaged in gravitation measurements by his torsion pendulum. Chemistry had two institutes; both were interested in analysis and inorganic chemistry. As the head of the number two Institute happened to be Lengyel, the first investigations started in the laboratories of this Institute. Some people soon recognized, however, that a modern field, like radioactivity, with its transmutating elements, decaying atoms, needs a non-traditional way of thinking, while this institute, which had heavy loads of teaching and other responsibilities, was a home of traditional chemistry.

6 To establish a new chair or a new institute for a new field in the Budapest University, which worked in the traditional German structure, was almost impossible. The compromise was reached in a strange way in 1915. The university had an Institute of Glass-blowing, which manufactured special glass devices for research purposes and was located in the basement of the second Institute of Chemistry. The faculty decided to change the Glass-blowing Institute to the "Radium Station," as it was coined. Since Glass-blowing did not belong to any particular institute or department, nei-