Vojtěch Šafařík (26 October 1829 in
Újvidék
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...
,
Bács-Bodrog County
Bács-Bodrog County (, , ) was an administrative county () of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1802 to 1920. Most of its territory is currently part of Serbia, while a smaller part belongs to Hungary. The capital of the county was Zombor (present-day ...
,
Vojvodina
Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...
,
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
(today
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
) – 2 July 1902 in
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
,
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
) was a Czech
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...
, specialising in
inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry deals with chemical synthesis, synthesis and behavior of inorganic compound, inorganic and organometallic chemistry, organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subj ...
. Šafařík was the son of
Pavel Jozef Šafárik
Pavel Jozef Šafárik (; 13 May 1795 – 26 June 1861) was a Slovak philologist, poet, literary historian, historian and ethnographer in the Kingdom of Hungary. He was one of the first scientific Slavists.
Family
His father Pavol Šafárik (17 ...
, a
Slovak philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...
and historian.
The crater
Šafařík Šafařík (feminine: Šafaříková) in a Czech surname. Šafárik (feminine: Šafáriková) in a Slovak surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Michal Šafařík (1977–2020), Czech ice hockey player
*Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–18 ...
on the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
is named after him, and so is the minor planet
8336 Šafařík (in conjunction with his wife).
Work
In
Göttingen
Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
, he was involved in the investigation of the reaction of metals with
alkyl iodides and produced diethylmagnesium. He also worked on the chemical composition of platinum and vanadium catalysts, and on
organometallic
Organometallic chemistry is the study of organometallic compounds, chemical compounds containing at least one chemical bond between a carbon atom of an organic molecule and a metal, including alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metals, and so ...
compounds (
Grignard compounds). At the
Vienna Academy
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna () is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1688 as a private academy, it is now a public university. The academy is also known for twice rejecting admission to a young Adolf Hitler in 1907 and 1908.
...
he published a work on physical chemistry. He also studied mineralogy.
In 1859, together with fellow chemist
Antonín Bělohoubek
Antonin, Antonín, and Antoñín are masculine given names. Antonín, a Czech name in use in the Czech Republic, and Antonin, a French name in use in France, and French-speaking countries, are both considered alternate forms of Antonino. Antoñín ...
, he participated in a detailed chemical and microscopic analysis of the authenticity of the notorious
Queen's Court (Dvůr Králové) and Green Mountain (''Zelená Hora'') manuscripts. Finding
Prussian Blue
Prussian blue (also known as Berlin blue, Brandenburg blue, Parisian and Paris blue) is a dark blue pigment produced by oxidation of ferrous ferrocyanide salts. It has the chemical formula . It consists of cations, where iron is in the oxidat ...
(unknown until the 18th century) in the initialling of the manuscripts, which were purported to date from the 1200s, they came to the conclusion that the manuscripts were forgeries and literary hoaxes.
In 1860, Šafařík published the first introductory university textbook of chemistry in Czech (''Základové chemie čili lučby''). He worked to improve Czech chemical terminology, building on and improving over the nomenclature of Czech chemist
Jan Svatopluk Presl
Jan Svatopluk Presl (4 September 1791 – 6 April 1849) was a Czech natural scientist.
He was the brother of botanist Carl Borivoj Presl (1794–1852). The Czech Botanical Society commemorated the two brothers by naming its principal publication ...
and the linguist
Josef Jungmann
Josef Jungmann (16 July 1773 – 14 November 1847) was a Czech linguist and poet, and a leading figure of the Czech National Revival. Together with Josef Dobrovský, he is considered to be a creator of the modern Czech language. The literary aw ...
. In 1882 he was appointed as the first professor of chemistry at
Charles-Ferdinand University
Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...
in Prague.
In later life, he wrote many popular textbooks as well as making over 20,000 observations of
variable star
A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes systematically with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are ...
s. His wife and co-worker Paulína Šafaříková was interested in the history and popularisation of astronomy.
Note
Vojtěch Šafařík's name has often been incorrectly recorded as Adalbert Šafařík. It is thought that the confusion arose because of misguided translation attempts.
St. Adalbert of Prague is known in Czech by his birth name of
Vojtěch Vojtěch (Czech language, Czech pronunciation: ) or Vojtech is a, respectively, Czech and Slovak Slavic names, given name of Slavic origin. It is composed of two parts: ''voj'' – "troops"/"war(rior)" and ''těch'' – "consolator"/"rejoicing man". ...
; however, that Vojtěch took the name Adalbert for his
Confirmation
In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...
, in honour of his tutor
Adalbert of Magdeburg
Adalbert of Magdeburg (c. 91020 June 981), sometimes incorrectly shortened to "Albert", known as the Apostle of the Slavs, was the first Archbishop of Magdeburg (from 968) and a successful missionary to the Polabian Slavs to the east of what was ...
. Thus, the two names (Vojtěch and Adalbert) have no linguistic relationship with each other.
Safarik himself contributed to the confusion. His written astronomical works are signed either "A. Safarik" or "Adalbert Vojtech Safarik" as can be seen from the Astrophysics Data System listing all his papers.
See also
*
Czech chemical nomenclature
References
External links
* Biography: http://www.vscht.cz/skola/historie/safarik (Czech)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Safarik, Vojtech
1829 births
1902 deaths
19th-century Czech people
19th-century chemists
Czech chemists
Chemists from Austria-Hungary
Scientists from Novi Sad