Lovits, Toviy Egorovich

Born in Gottingen. In 1768 , he arrived in Russia with his father, astronomer G. M. Lovits . After the tragic death of his father during the Pugachev riot, he was brought up by the mathematician Leonard Euler . The 17-year-old Johann Tobias Lovitz was determined by the Academic Gymnasium at the public expense, but poorly fluent in Russian, after two years of training did not achieve significant success. He developed a disease that was accompanied by epileptic seizures. In 1777 , he left the gymnasium and got a job as a pharmacist in the Main Pharmacy in St. Petersburg, at which, like in many other pharmacies of the time, a chemical laboratory worked. Toviy Lovits read a lot and was engaged in "chemical experiments" and in 1779 became an assistant pharmacist. ^[one]

But the disease continued to progress. In 1780, he went to Germany to his only close relative - his maternal uncle, having officially arranged the trip as a business trip “for acquiring knowledge”. In Germany, he studied at the University of Gottingen (1780-1782), but the training turned out to be too expensive and lengthy for Lovitz to finish it.

In order to improve his health, Lovitz began to practice long walks that had a positive effect on his well-being. Having made a seven-month trip to European countries for a final recovery, Lovitz decides to return to St. Petersburg. And in 1784, he returned to Russia forever and settled in the same Main Pharmacy in St. Petersburg, where he later completed a significant part of his research.

Since 1797 he worked in a home laboratory, while officially serving in the Petersburg Academy of Sciences as a professor of chemistry.

Studies are devoted to various problems of chemistry. In 1784, he discovered the phenomenon of supersaturation and hypothermia of solutions; set the conditions for growing crystals .

Discovery of the phenomenon of adsorption of dissolved substances by coal

June 5, 1785 ^[2] T. E. Lovits discovered the phenomenon of adsorption of coal in solutions and studied it in detail. The need to find a way to clean tartaric acid , which Lovitz received in large quantities in a pharmacy for medical purposes, served as the impetus for the discovery. When the acid solutions were evaporated, a darkening almost always occurred, and “wishing to avoid this unpleasant phenomenon”, Lovitz made his discovery, which was of great practical importance in the future. Purification using coal as an adsorbing agent has reduced the time to obtain tartaric acid from three weeks to three to five days. Also, the use of coal allowed to reduce the duration of the technological cycle in the preparation of purified potassium acetate . Lovits used coal in the distillation of wine vinegar , which greatly simplified the manufacturing technology and reduced the cost of Westendorf acetic alcohol, widely used at that time as an antiseptic. ^[3]

Lovitz conducted numerous experiments, studying the properties of coal as an adsorbent in various contaminated liquids. He found that coal cleans dirty ("brown") solutions of salts, clarifies the color of honey, syrup and other juices, discolors solutions of coloring substances. I found out the effect of coal on various odorous substances, for example, that coal deprives simple vodka of the smell and taste of fusel oil, cleans stagnant water. He also discovered the antiseptic effect of coal.

His work “Indication of a new way to make potable water during sea voyages” immediately found practical application: they began to store drinking water on ships in wooden barrels with a layer of coal and it did not rot for months. Also, the Toviya Lovitsa method was started to be used in Russian vodka factories for the purification of crude wine spirit. ^[four]

Discoveries of Lovits are widely used today: in medicine, ecology, chemical, pharmaceutical, food and defense industries.

Crystallization of salts from solutions

One of the first in the world, Lovitz began to study the crystallization of salts from solutions. ^[2] In order to use individual crystalline modifications in the analysis of salts, he produced 288 models of various substances and classified them by chemical characteristics. Developed several recipes for cooling mixtures.

He discovered (1789) a method for producing glacial acetic acid . First received: (1788) betulin ^[5] (a crystalline organic substance found in birch water and also found in birch tar; a white resinous substance that fills the cavity of cork tissue cells on birch trunks and gives it a white color), (1792) crystalline glucose , sodium chloride dihydrate and crystalline caustic alkalis (1795). Prepared (1796) anhydrous (absolute) diethyl ether and ethyl alcohol ; the latter was used to separate barium, strontium and calcium salts. He discovered and described (1790) the Lovitz arcs named after him ^[6] - an optical phenomenon that sometimes accompanies a halo .

• Figurovsky N.A. , Ushakova N.N. Toviy Egorovich Lovits, 1757-1804 / Otv. ed. A.N. Shamin . - M .: Nauka , 1988 .-- 192 p. - ( Scientific and biographical series ). - 1,500 copies. (region)
• Volkov V.A., Vonsky E.V., Kuznetsova G.I. Outstanding chemists of the world. - M.: Higher School, 1991.271 p.
• Salo V. M. Towards the Discovery by T. E. Lovitz of the Adsorption of Coal. // Pharmacy. 1985. - T. 34. No. 2. P. 82-84.
• Egorov V.A., Abdulmananova E.L. / History of Pharmacy 2002.225 p.

• D. N. Trifonov Toviy Egorovich Lovits
• Profile of Toviy Egorovich (Tobias Johann) Lovits on the official website of the RAS