Jan Vincenc Diviš

6.4.1848 – 13.10.1923 

Jan Vincenc Diviš (1848-1923) is one of the most important Pardubice natives who became famous outside their region. Diviš was a chemist by training and for many years worked as a director of sugar factories throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He made his mark in the history of the field as one of the most important experts in saccharometry and carbohydrate chemistry.

 

 

Jan Vincenc Diviš (1848-1923) was born into the prominent Diviš family, from which came, for example, the archaeologist Václav Diviš and the poet - grandson of Jan Vincenc - Ivan Diviš. In his native Pardubice he studied at a high school, which was headed by another famous figure of the time - Jiljí Vratislav Jahn. After graduation he decided to study natural sciences at the Technical University in Prague, today's CTU. During his studies, he met a number of people prominent in the science of the time - for example, the physicist Karel Zenger and Karel Slavoj Amerling were his teachers, Jan Krejčí taught him geology and Ladislav J. Čelakovský taught him botany. He was most interested in chemistry and began to study it intensively. During his studies he also met the prominent geologist and palaeontologist Antonín Frič, whom he assisted in the then Patriotic Museum. Diviš was also employed as an assistant by the geologist Joachim Barrande in his laboratory: He supposedly met Barrande by chance when he asked to borrow a newspaper and they engaged in a conversation about science. Subsequently, J. V. Diviš sorted the collected fossils for Barrande and wrote scientific articles according to his dictation. After graduating from university in 1870, he worked part-time as a teacher of chemistry in Pardubice, as there was a shortage of teachers in this field at that time, and at the same time he obtained a position as a trainee at the Pardubice sugar factory, where he could at least partly devote himself to science. In the sugar industry, he took his passion for chemistry to practical consequences, and in his early years he improved the regeneration of bone char, called spodumene. This was followed by sugar factories in Černožice, Jaroměř, Kralupy, a directorship in Josefov and finally in 1879 he became director of the sugar factory in Přelouč, where he remained until his death. This is also where his greatest inventions were made and where he wrote his most important sugar industry and chemestry works. He was interested in saccharometry, crystallization and inventions for industrial sugar production. In his time, he was one of the most important figures in the chemistry of sugars and wrote several sugar textbooks. In addition, he was also interested in literature and was himself an enthusiastic writer on history and archaeology, and translated the novels of Jules Verne. He is commemorated in Přelouč by his splendid villa designed by the architect Rudolf Kříženecký.

 

References

DIVIŠ, J. V.: Vzpomínky cukrovarníka: 1866–1874. Praha 1923

 

VRBOVÁ, K.: Významní členové rodu Divišů Čisteckých ze Šerlinku a jejich působení ve východních Čechách. Diplomová práce. Univerzita Pardubice: Filozofická fakulta 2014

 

DIVIŠ, I.; HORÁK, J.: Teorie spolehlivosti: [texty z let 1960/1999]. Praha 2002

PH