Obituaries

Abstract

DR. MAX MARGOSCHES, professor of chemical technology at the German Technische Hochschule in Brünn, died on Sept. 27, after an operation, in his fifty-second year. We are indebted to the ChemikerZeitung for the following details of his life and work. Born at Jassy, in Rumania, Margosches studied at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna and, after graduation there, was appointed assistant to Prof. Donath at the Technische Hochschule in Brünn. In 1906 he became lecturer on the chemical technology of mineral oils,fats, and asphalts. He was appointed extra-ordinary professor in 1913, and in 1918 he succeeded to the chair of chemical technology. In conjunction with Donath he carried out numerous investigations on coal, asphalt, and tar. Margosches' success in this field led to his appointment by the Austrian Ministry of Commerce as a delegate to the International Petroleum Congress, where he prepared a comprehensive report on the subject of asphalts, and he was elected a member of the International Petroleum Commission. In 1907 he began the publication of a comprehensive work on chemical analysis, which has had a wide circulation among analysts. The researches of Margosches and his pupils in the field of chemical technology, and particularly of oils and fats, led to the publication of a large number of scientific papers, many of which dealt with iodometric methods of analysis and the applicability of Kjeldahl's method of estimating nitrogen to the analysis of nitro-groups in organic compounds.