Pre-1962

This extract from 50 Years of X-ray Diffraction, edited by P. P. Ewald and published in 1962, recounts the early development of crystallography in this region.

Czechoslovakia

A first independent start with X-ray analysis was made at the Charles University in Prague in 1923 in a joint effort between the theoretical physicist K. Teige and the mineralogist B. Ježek. In 1923-25 F.Ulrich received a training under V. M. Goldschmidt in Oslo. A year or two earlier V. Dolejšek had gone to Lund in order to study X-ray spectroscopy with Manne Siegbahn. Two important papers resulted from this in 1922: the first measurement of the lines of the N-series; and, together with Siegbahn, the improvement of the accuracy of line measurement and its application to the K-spectra of elements from 17 Cl to 30 Zn. On his return to Prague, Dolejšek established a school of X-ray spectroscopy of great precision.

In the period between the wars, G. Hüttig did interesting work as Professor of Chemistry at the Charles University on 'vagrant constituents' in crystals using X-rays in conjunction with other methods. More recently, active schools of X-ray crystallography are to be found in Prague (Praha) and Brno in academic laboratories and in the industrial laboratory of the Skoda works.

First published for the International Union of Crystallography 1962 by N.V.A. Oosthoek's Uitgeversmaatschappij, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Digitised 1999 for the IUCr XVIII Congress, Glasgow, Scotland
© 1962, 1999 International Union of Crystallography