Czech miracles – Drop of mercury (Czech television documentary)

Polarograph – a discovery difficult to understand but important for the functioning of all mankind. Scientist Jaroslav Heyrovský won the Nobel Prize for its discovery. Czech television introduces a documentary series about Czechs who changed the world. This part is dedicated to Jaroslav Heyrovský and polarography.

The date 10th of February 1922 is a significant date for the whole world! On this day, polarography was created. It is an analytical method that provides valuable information about the type and amount of substances in the solution. Scientist Jaroslav Heyrovský won the Nobel Prize for it as the only one of two Czechs in history, the second one was the poet Jaroslav Seifert. Just a year after the discovery of polarography Jaroslav Heyrovský began to invent an automatic measuring instrument. Together with the Japanese scientist Masuzo Shikata, they constructed the first polarographic device in the world. Jaroslav Heyrovský began to be invited from scientific societies from around the world. He worked in the United States for half a year and he was lecturing at the most important universities in the West and the East. The discovery revolutionized chemistry and other natural sciences. Nevertheless, Jaroslav Heyrovský has been waiting for the Nobel Prize for 37 long years.

The whole document is available here (in Czech):

https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/11091597618-ceske-zazraky/419235100021005-kapka-rtuti/