Jakub Natanson (20 August 1832 – 14 September 1884) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

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 ...

and

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

, one of the discoverers of

Fuchsine Fuchsine (sometimes spelled fuchsin) or rosaniline hydrochloride is a magenta dye with chemical formula C20H19N3·HCl.

. He wrote the first textbook on organic chemistry in the Polish language.

Life

He was born 20 August 1832 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

as the son of a banker. From 1852 to 1856 he studied chemistry at the Universität Dorpat (today Tartu, central

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

) with a master’s degree in 1856, where he synthesized fuchsine in the master’s thesis (published in

Liebigs Annalen ''Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie'' (often cited as just ''Liebigs Annalen'') was one of the oldest and historically most important journals in the field of organic chemistry worldwide. It was established in 1832 and edited by Justus von Liebig ...

). He then trained from 1858 to 1862 in Germany, France and Great Britain with leading chemists and in 1862 became Professor of Chemistry at the ''Szkoła Główna Warszawska'' in Warsaw. In 1856 he found two new

urea Urea, also known as carbamide, is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest amide of carbamic acid. Urea serves an important ...

syntheses. He gave up his professorship in 1866 to join the family bank (

Bank Handlowy Bank Handlowy w Warszawie (BHW) or Citi Handlowy is a Polish bank based in Warsaw, established in 1870. It is one of the oldest banks in Poland and Europe. It is the 10th largest bank in Poland in terms of assets, and 18th in terms of number of out ...

, today after the merger citi-Handlowy.) He was in the management of various companies (with interests in coal mining, paper, sugar, railroad) and founded, among others, the industrial and agricultural museum (1875). He died on 14 September 1884 in

and was buried in the

Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery The Warsaw Jewish Cemetery is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe and in the world. Located on Warsaw's Okopowa Street and abutting the Christian Powązki Cemetery, the Jewish necropolis was established in 1806 and occupies 33 hectar ...

Literature

Professor Jakub Natanson is mentioned in several books:
Jakub Natanson, by Edmund Trepka, 1955
(in English) *Winfried R. Pötsch, Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexikon bedeutender Chemiker (en: ''Lexicon of eminent chemists'' ) . Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main/Thun 1989,
The Polish Biographical dictionary, 1905Celia S. Heller, On the Edge of Destruction -Jews of Poland between the Two World Wars
(p. 36) *Henryk Kroszczor: Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1983, p. 20.
"Jakub Natanson." The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. 1970-1979. The Gale Group, Inc. 25 Nov. 2021

Publications

*''Ueber Substituirung der Aldehydradicale im Ammoniak.'' In:

Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie ''Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie'' (often cited as just ''Liebigs Annalen'') was one of the oldest and historically most important journals in the field of organic chemistry worldwide. It was established in 1832 and edited by Justus von Liebig ...

. 92, 1854, S. 48–59, . *''Ueber Acetylamin und seine Derivate'' In: Journal für praktische Chemie, 1856, S. 242 *''Ueber die Anwendung einer Modification der Gay-Lussac'schen Dampfdichtenbestimmungsmethode bei Substanzen mit hohem Siedepunkt.'' In:

. 98, 1856, S. 301–307, . *''Empfindlichste Reaction auf Eisen.'' In:

130, 1864, S. 246–246, .

External links

Portrait of J. Natason, Centralna Biblioteka Rolnicza, Warszawa 2004On the edge destruction -Jews of Poland
(in english), ''J.N., professor of chemistry''
Polish chemistry, Chemistry International, 1998, Vol. 20, No.5, p.131
(in english)
Natanson Family
IVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (english)
WorldCat books about and from Jakub Natanson

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Natanson, Jakub 1832 births 1884 deaths Polish chemists Polish bankers 19th-century Polish Jews Scientists from Warsaw University of Tartu alumni