Friedrich Richard Reinitzer (25 February 1857 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

– 16 February 1927 in Graz) was an Austrian botanist and chemist. In late 1880s, experimenting with

cholesteryl benzoate Cholesteryl benzoate, also called 5-cholesten-3-yl benzoate, is an organic chemical, an ester of cholesterol and benzoic acid. It is a liquid crystal material forming cholesteric liquid crystals with helical structure. It can be used with choleste ...

, he discovered properties of

liquid crystals Liquid crystal (LC) is a state of matter whose properties are between those of conventional liquids and those of solid crystals. For example, a liquid crystal may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. The ...

(named later by Otto Lehmann). Reinitzer was born into a German Bohemian family in Prague. He studied chemistry at the German technical university in Prague; in 1883 he was habilitated there as a private docent. From 1888-1901 he was a professor at

Karl-Ferdinands-Universität ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , underg ...

, then professor at

technical university An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...

in Graz. During 1909 - 1910 he served as the

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the university. While at Karl-Ferdinands-Universität in 1888 he discovered a strange behaviour of what would later be called

. For the explanation of their behaviour he collaborated with the physicist Otto Lehmann from Aachen. The discovery received plenty of attention at the time but no practical uses were apparent and the interest dropped soon.Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
History of Computers and Computing, Birth of the modern computer

Selected works

* F. Reinitzer (1888) "Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Cholesterins", ''Monatshefte für Chemie'' 9:421–41. * F. Reinitzer (1891) "Der Gerbstoffbegriff und seine Beziehung zur Pflanzenchemie", ''Lotos'' 39.

References

* David Dunmur & Tim Sluckin (2011) ''Soap, Science, and Flat-screen TVs: a history of liquid crystals'', pp 17–20,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Reinitzer, Friedrich 19th-century Austrian botanists Austrian chemists German Bohemian people Scientists from Prague 1857 births 1927 deaths Czech Technical University in Prague alumni Academics of the Graz University of Technology Charles University faculty 20th-century Austrian botanists