History and development of analytical chemistry at Charles University before 1920

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the centenary of the establishment of the independent Faculty of Science of the Charles University; in particular, it provides an overview of the history of analytical chemistry at this university from its founding in 1348 to 1920. At the beginning of the article, the history of the Charles University with a focus on sciences is briefed and the most important representatives at the Charles University are recalled (Bernard Bolzano, Albert Einstein, Ernst Mach). Despite the fact that analytical chemistry has been taught as a separate discipline at the Charles University since the middle of the 19th century, its roots can be traced back to the early years of the Charles University’s existence, i.e., six centuries before the Faculty of Science of the university was established. Therefore, the story of analytical chemistry at the Charles University represents an important chapter in the history of chemistry in the Czech Lands. The first specific mentions of analysis at the Charles University can be found at the beginning of the 17th century, when university theses dealt with the mental analysis of chemical problems. During the 17th and 18th century, as at other European universities, analytical chemistry emerged as an important auxiliary science at the Faculty of Medicine. Here the Founding Fathers included especially Jan Marek Marci of Kronland (1595–1667), discoverer of the separation of white light in a prism eighteen years sooner than Isaac Newton. Professor Jan Antonín Scrinci (1697–1773) established uninterrupted teaching of chemistry at the Charles University. He focused mainly on the analysis of mineral waters, and therefore, the article provides the first detailed evaluation of his chemical publications. Next, the successful development of analytical chemistry at the Charles University is described by reconstructing the line of succession of the foremost representatives of analytical chemistry at the University. The attention is drawn to the aspects of analytical chemistry present in their publications of that time. The rapid development of chemistry in the second half of the 19th century culminated at the Charles University in the person of Bohuslav Brauner (1855–1935), Mendeleev’s close friend and one of the most important Czech chemist. Thanks to him, an independent Faculty of Science was finally established in 1920, which, among other things, created the conditions that later led to awarding of the Nobel Prize to Professor Jaroslav Heyrovský for the discovery and development of polarographic methods of analysis.

Graphic abstract