Ivan Sm oler* (Praha)
W IK T O R K E M U L A IN PR A G U E
I w ould like to rem ind the first visit o f Prof. K em ula, th en a young scientist, to Pague. So far I rem em ber, it w as in 1929. O ne day, Prof. H eyrovsky received a letter from Prof. Tołłoczko from Lwów, announcing the arrival o f his pupil, M r K em ula, to the Institute o f P hysical C hem istry o f the C h arles’ U niversity in P ra gue. Prof. H eyrovsky read this letter, w ritten in Polish, at the regu lar five- o ’clock-tea held in the Institute. It w as a custom o f Prof. H eyrovsky to discuss all new s w ith his co-w orkers over the cup o f tea. In his letter, Prof. Tołłoczko w rote that a young m an o f science - I rem em ber the original sentence: „m łody mąż, żą dny w iedzy” - w ill com e to H eyrovsky‘s Institute to study polarography.
Indeed, this yo u n g man o f science appeared soon in our Institute. A t once he gained the hearts o f all colleagues by his open, cheerful, optim istic m ode, w ith a characteristic sm ile in his tw itching eyes.
Soon, h e entered into the life o f our Institute, and w e felt him as one o f our team . A fter a short tim e he could speak Czech. T he Slavonic languages show, h o w ever, m any treacherous sim ilarities and pitfalls. O nce Mr. K em u la to ld us ab out the visit o f M arshall P iłsudski in their laboratory. To the en d o f the visit all stood in line, w hile Piłsudski w alked along and shook hands w ith everyone. H e re M r K em ula m ade a pause. One o f us im patiently asked: „and th en - w h a t?” * Dr Ivan Smoler (1901$ 1990), was a close co-worker o f Prof. Jaroslav Heyrovsky in Prague, then research worker in the J. Heyrovsky Institute o f Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. This is his talk at the 80th birthday celebration of Prof. Wiktor Kemu la, held in Gdańsk, 1983).
74 I. Smoler
M r K em ula answered: „co potem ? P otem poszed ł..." In Polish this m eant: he departed - but w e burst in laugh; in C zech nam ely, p o śe l - m eans perished, died (as an animal)*. Soon, how ever, M r K em ula m astered fluently Czech, and we lost the m atter for fun.
M r K em ula w orked in H eyrovsky1 s laboratory w ith m uch skill and - w hat should be especially em phasized - w ith m uch enthusiasm , w hich w as very cha racteristic o f him. Soon he got interesting results. To study the reversibility o f electrode processes, he constructed an apparatus for autom atic alternation o f the poles o f the polarographic circuit. T his idea w as later used by K alousek - also a pupil o f Prof. H eyrovsky - for construction o f the w ell know n K alo usek ’s al ternator, and for am ple studies o f reversible processes. Still later, B arker in E ngland used the sam e idea for his square-w ave polarograph w hich greatly increased the sensitivity o f the m ethod.
Further, M r K em ula studied the m axim a in m ercury salts solutions, and con tributed to the problem o f polarographic m axim a. Later he found an exaltation o f polarographic currents in solutions w ith no supporting electrolyte. A ll these results w ere referred to on the regular polarographic colloquia, and then p ub lis hed in the Collection o f C zechoslovak C hem ical C om m unications - the jo u rn al new ly founded by Prof. H eyrovsky and Prof. Votocek for publishing C zech and Slovak chem ical papers in English or French.
M r K em ula, later professor at the W arsaw U niversity, v isited P rague m any tim es, before and after the war. He took part in trips, organised by Prof. H ey rovsky in C zechoslovakia and abroad, and also in m any polarographic conges- ses and sym posia. Also our scientists found always a friendly reception in W ar saw at Prof. K em ula’s Institute.
Prof. K em ula never abandoned the field o f polarography. He introduced a new m ethod - the chrom ato-polarography, w hich found w ide applications. He con structed an arrangement for the study on a hanging mercury drop electrode, a m ethod w hich proved to be very productive now adays.
M r K em ula never lost contacts w ith the Polarographic Institute in Prague. We h ad m any visitors from all com ers o f the World: from m ost E uropean coun tries, from A m erica, A ustralia, A frica; but only Prof. K em ula w as alw ays trea ted as a m em ber o f the Polarographic Institute. T he early pupils o f Prof. H ey rovsky: B rdićka, Ilkovic, H erasym enko, G osm an, Varasova and others - all h a ve gone, nothing is left from the first 10 years o f polarography. B ut the new and new est generation o f polarographic w orkers know w ell and highly esteem Prof. K em ula, w ho up to these days shows a steady interest in polarography, and re m ains on the top o f this branch o f science.
