The chemical branch of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute was opened in 1898. His first dean became the famous chemist Mikhail Ivanovich Konovalov (the one who discovered the "reaction of Konovalov"). On his initiative, there was founded the second in the world and the first in the Russian Empire Department of Physical Chemistry in the institute in 1900 (the organizer and leader until 1908 - Professor V. F. Timofeev). Subsequently, the faculty was guided (for 30 years) by Konovalov's student, Professor V. A. Plotnikov, and he started a new scientific direction, known as the "Kyiv Electrochemical School". Among the teachers of the CTF were well-known scientists L. V. Pisarzhevsky, V. G. Shaposhnikov, K. G. Dementiev and others. So it is not surprising that a large part of the old fund of our library is the literature on chemistry. It presented at the exhibition, which was open in the hall number 2 of rare and valuable editions of G. I. Denisenko the Scientific and Technical Library.
The first part of the exhibition consists of scientific works of the classics of chemistry: the French scientist Jean Schaptal (1756-1832); Swedish pharmacist chemist Carl Wilhelm Sheel (1742-1786), who became the pioneer of several chemical elements (in particular, oxygen); Hermann Kop (Theoretical Chemistry) (1817-1892) - historian of chemical science; D. I. Mendeleev (1834-1907) - the author of the famous periodic table of chemical elements and chairman of the first state examination committee KPI.
Also presented teaching aids of the professors of the Kiev Polytechnic - V. G. Shaposhnikov, K. G. Dementiev, M. I. Konovalov. Most publications remained proprietary labels and printing, autographs of authors, inscriptions.
Of course, the largest part of the editions is the textbooks and practical manuals dated from the middle of the 19th - the first half of the twentieth century. Among them there are lithographed copies - unique samples of scientific technical literature.
Another block of the exhibition is the works of the Nobel Prize winners in chemistry: Swante Arenius, Jacob Van-Hoff, Maria Sklodowska-Curie. There are quite a lot of such books in our fund, and the electronic database "The Works of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the STL Fund" is presented on the library's website.
There are also several editions from various popular science series beginning of the twentieth century. - "Essays on the history of natural science", "Scientific and popular library" , "Man and the Universe "," Library for self-education "," Classics of natural science ". Such editions were very popular in the 20-ies of the last century.
The exhibition has about 100 book editions, will last until June, and it will be open to anyone interested in getting acquainted with it.