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Władysław Natanson (1864-1937)

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Władysław Natanson (1864-1937) Aleksandra Cieślar Władysław Natanson (1864–1937) ładysław Natanson was born on the 18th of June 1864 in Warsaw, the Wson of Ludwik Natanson and his second wife, Natalia Epstein. Th e Natansons were a family of Warsaw bankers and industrialists of Jew- ish heritage, who exerted sizeable infl uence within the Kingdom of Poland. Members of the family had been, among other things, co-founders and presi- dents of the Trade Bank in Warsaw, had headed the Warsaw Stock Exchange, run publishing businesses, and played an important role in the development of the town of Konstancin-Jeziorna, to where they transferred the Mirkowska Paper Plant. Some of them emigrated to France, where they equally conduct- ed fi nancial activities as well as becoming patrons of the arts. Th e founder of the Natanson family’s fi nancial might was Samu- el (equally Seelig or Zeelig) Natanson (1795–1879), the son of Natan of Leszno (also called Leski) and his wife Franciszka Izraelowicz. Initially he involved himself in trade, running a clothes shop and later trading in cloth and materials. He was also actively involved in the soap industry and sugar manufacture. In 1866, together with his two sons (Henryk and Jakub), he opened the banking house Samuel Natanson and Sons, which was to exist until 1932 and became the basis of the family’s fortune. Samuel married Leokadia Weinreb, with whom he had twelve children (four of whom died in childhood or infancy). — 153 — One of the sons was Ludwik (1821–1896), the father of Władysław. Ludwik was not only a well-known, highly committed practicing medical doctor, but also a meritorious social activist. From 1871 right up until his death he was the president of the Warsaw Jewish community. Th anks to his eff orts Orthodox hospitals and the Great Synagogue at Tłomacki were built, work was also com- menced on the Central Judaic Library and the start of the construction of the headquarters for the Jewish community in Warsaw at Grzybowska Street. In addition Ludwik Natanson was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the jour- nal Tygodnik Lekarski [Medical Weekly] as well as being the author of a series of works on medicine and pedagogy. Th e rich intellectual tradition of the Na- tanson family is best conveyed in the words of Władysław Natanson, which appear in his autobiography written a few years before his death (in 1933): In my family, a middle-class one, of industrial traditions, a love and adoration of the natural sciences had existed for a long time. My father was to graduate in 1838 from the Medical Academy in Vilnius and the University of Dorpat [...]. My uncle Jakub was from 1862 a professor at Szkoła Główna [Th e Main School] in Warsaw making his name in the history of organic chemistry. My fi rst cousin Józef committed himself at the University to Zoology; he wrote about bacteriology while in exile in Volgograd Province; for many years he was a member of the Mianowski Bank committee and on the Editorial Board of the (former) Wszechświat [Th e Universe]. My brother Edward in youth devoted himself to research into physics; the fi rst of my and his works were jointly published and worked on. (W. Natanson, Autobiography, p. 118) In 1874 W. Natanson started to attend the III State Classical Secondary School in Warsaw. He did not retain the most positive of recollections of his time at the school – in his autobiography he writes about the inadequacies inherent in the teaching system as well as the physical and mental bullying of pupils (‘In the said secondary school, where the inspector was the infamous Troickij, we were poorly and inadequately taught, yet relentlessly tormented and picked on; but I was not taught to hate merely I learned a deep-rooted abhorrence of brutal violence; a disgust for foolishness; adoration for the ide- as of justice and freedom; pain and sorrow with regard to parochialism and anger’). Despite all of this as a result of his overwhelming talents and the love of knowledge he had taken with him from home, Władysław fi nished the school in 1882 with marks of distinction. Aft er passing his school leaving certifi cate he entered the University in St. Petersburg, starting his degree programme at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. During his studies he had the opportunity to hear the lecturers of many eminent academics of the day, such as Andrei Markov (the mathematician), Orest Khvol’son (the physicist) as well as Dmitri Men- deleev. Aft er four years of study Natanson was awarded the degree of candi- date in mathematics and the natural sciences (a Ph.D. equivalent) and left — 154 — for Great Britain with the aim of continuing his education at Cambridge and Glasgow. In the following two years (1887 and 1888) he twice left for Dorpat (at present Tartu in Estonia). At the university in Dorpat he was to obtain another master’s degree (on the basis of the dissertation A kinetic theory of imperfect gases) and a Ph.D. in Physics (for the thesis On a kinetic theory of the Joule phenomenon). In the intervening years he spent time at the universities in Strasbourg and Graz, where he studied the theory of gases. As he was unable at the time to fi nalise his post-doctoral thesis he returned to Warsaw in 1888. Natanson’s exceptional talents for the sciences had manifested themselves at an early age. Already as a fi ft een-year-old together with his older brother Edward he submitted his fi rst popular-scientifi c article entitled Th e Sun and Carbon for publication. A year later at a sitting of the Society for the Scienc- es in Paris the brothers presented their next extensive work entitled Chem- ical value and its changeability. From the age of nineteen onwards works by Władysław were to appear annually. In the years 1885 and 1886 there were to appear the following pieces by the brothers – Research into the dissociation of nitrogen dioxide and Further investigations into the dissociation of nitrogen dioxide – based on the research conducted by them (these works were to be- come classics in physical literature and were to be oft en cited by subsequent researchers). In certain periods W. Natanson even published a dozen or so works, which appeared in various scientifi c journals both Polish and foreign. His articles were the most oft en published in the Cracow based Reports of the Polish Academy of Learning. Th e Polish Academy of Learning was an institu- tion with which Natanson closely cooperated. Th e years 1888 to 1889 saw the appearance of one of Natanson’s great- er works – An introduction to theoretical physics, in which he expounded his views on the subject of the development of the basic fi elds of physics: dynamics, thermodynamics and the kinetic theory of gases. Th is textbook, written in beautiful Polish with a clear presentation of matters, was awarded a prise by the Mianowski Bank, and was to mean that this young academ- ic came to the interest and attention of Prof. August Witkowski (rector of the Jagiellonian University for the academic year 1910/1911), who proposed a post-doctoral degree course of study for the post of assistant professor in Th eoretical Physics at the Jagiellonian University (UJ). Following the defence of his post-doctoral thesis in June 1891 W. Natanson was to associate himself permanently with the Jagiellonian University. Until 1893 he was an assistant professor at the Department of Mathematical Physics, while in 1893 he was awarded the title of professor, with full professorial status being granted two years later (at the turn of 1903). In 1907 he was elected for the post of dean of the Philosophy Faculty. From 1913 to 1930 he was the head of the Depart- ment of Mathematical Physics, while in 1930 he took over the running of the — 155 — Department of Th eoretical Physics. He fulfi lled the function of rector of the University for the academic year 1922/1923. Professor W. Natanson’s extensive academic output covers 240 works, of which 82 are purely scientifi c. Many of the works concern matters of ther- modynamics. Th e pinnacle of his research into this fi eld are the two disserta- tions: On the laws of irreversible phenomena (1896) and On the thermokinetic properties of thermodynamic potentials (1897). Natanson included in these the fundamental concepts of the contemporary thermodynamics of irrevers- ible phenomena, generalised Hamilton’s variation principle for irreversible phenomena and formulated a general principle which he called ‘thermoki- netic.’ Fascinated by the electron theory of matter Natanson was for several years to involve himself also in the hydrodynamics of viscous fl uids and the theory of diff usional phenomena. Th e results of his research in this area was the work An electromagnetic theory of dispersion and extinction, published in 1907. Two years later, in the French scientifi c journal Journal de Physique Th éorique et Appliquée there appeared a subsequent work in this fi eld – On the polarisation of elliptic light in an environment absorbing and twisting the plane of polarization, in which the author presented his theory later called ‘Natanson’s rule.’ Professor Natanson also involved himself in the newly cre- ated fi eld of physics – wave mechanics. Th e fruit of his studies in this fi eld was the monographic work published in 1930 – Th e fi rst principles of undulatory mechanics. In the last years of his life Natanson devoted himself to research into optics (particularly geometrical optics).
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