Tadeusz Estreicher (19 December 1871 – 8 April 1952) was a Polish

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

cryogenics In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...

pioneer.

Life

Tadeusz Estreicher was born in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

when the city was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. He grew up in the intellectual atmosphere of an influential dynasty of professors at the Jagiellonian University. His father, Karol Józef Estreicher, was a historian of literature and the chief librarian of the university. His brother, Stanisław, was a historian of law and his sister, Maria, was one of the first women in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

to earn a doctorate (in English Philology). Estreicher studied in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, and in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

under

William Ramsay Sir William Ramsay (; 2 October 1852 – 23 July 1916) was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous element ...

. As a student at the Jagiellonian University, Estreicher worked as an assistant to

Karol Olszewski Karol Stanisław Olszewski (29 January 1846 – 24 March 1915) was a Poles, Polish chemist, mathematician and physicist. Biography Olszewski was a graduate of Kazimierz Brodziński High School in Tarnów (I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Kazi ...

, the first chemist to liquefy

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as ...

. After having been appointed assistant in 1899, Estreicher successfully liquefied

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...

in 1901 before he was promoted to ''Privatdozent'' in 1904. In 1900, he described the

Jagiellonian globe The Jagiellonian globe, also known as the Globus Jagellonicus, dates from 1510 and is attributed to Jean Coudray, a French clockmaker active in France. It is the oldest extant globe to use the name America. It resembles the 1504 Lenox Globe. The ...

in the ''Transactions of the Cracow Academy of Sciences''.Tadeusz Estreicher, ''Globus Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej z początku wieku XVI, w Krakowie,'' Nakładem Akademii Umięjetności, 1900, 18 p

a resumé, "Ein Erdglobus aus dem Anfange des XVI. Jahrhunderts in der Jagellonischen Bibliothek", was published in the ''Bulletin international de l'Académie des Sciences de Cracovie/ Anzeiger der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Krakau,'' No.2, February 1900, pp.96-105. Estreicher prepared a manuscript English translation in March 1900: A globe of the beginning of the 16th century in the Jagellon Library, Extract from the Official Report of the Cracow Academy of Sciences, Globus Biblioteki Jagiellonskiej z początku w. XVI, No.12, January 1900, National Library of Australia MS 760/12/199

/ref> From 1906 until 1919 he worked in Switzerland a professor for mineral and general chemistry at the

University of Fribourg The University of Fribourg (french: Université de Fribourg; german: Universität Freiburg) is a public university located in Fribourg, Switzerland. The roots of the university can be traced back to 1580, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisi ...

where he ran a

laboratory. From 1913 to 1914 he also served as dean of the department. In 1919, aged 47, he returned to newly independent

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and took a position with the Jagiellonian University where he remained until his retirement. His later work examined the history and language of science. On 6 November 1939, along with his brother Stanisław and other professors of the University, Estreicher was caught in

Sonderaktion Krakau ''Sonderaktion Krakau'' was a German operation against professors and academics of the Jagiellonian University and other universities in German-occupied Kraków, Poland, at the beginning of World War II. It was carried out as part of the much bro ...

. Both were transported to the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoner ...

, where his brother died on 28 December 1939. Tadeusz survived the camp and was released in February 1940, following protests from European academics to the Nazi German government.

References

;Notes ;Sources *Banach, A.K., Dybiec, J. & Stopka, K. The History of the Jagiellonian University. Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press, 2000. *Burek, Edward (ed.) “Estreicher, Tadeusz” in Encyklopedia Krakowa. Kraków: PWM, 2000. *Julian Kamecki, „Prof. dr Tadeusz Estreicher (1871-1952): Uczony i człowiek“, Roczniki ''chemii: Annales Societatis Chimicae Polonorum,'' vol.26, no.4, 1952, pp. 505–519.

External links

The Faculty of Chemistry
at the Jagiellonian University

at the Jagiellonian University Museum * * ''TADEUSZ ESTREICHER (Thaddaeus Estreicher-Rozbievski) (1871-1952). Polish chemist and historian of science ...'', Obituary in Nature (69, xo080o, 1952
JSTOR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Estreicher, Tadeusz 1871 births 1952 deaths Polish chemists 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Jagiellonian University alumni Alumni of University College London Academic staff of Jagiellonian University Austro-Hungarian scientists Austro-Hungarian expatriates in Switzerland

Life

See also

References

External links