Serbian Chemical Society (SCS)

The archives of the Serbian Chemical Society were burnt in the bombing of Belgrade in 1941. But a great number of important document concerning the history of the Society were preserved and later collected from members or from Sections and Affiliates, so that, based on them, important events in the life and work of the Society, for the first fifty years, could b described after all. The reader will probably feel that the history of the Society of that lime shows some blanks and that some of the descriptions are based on unreliable conclusions which are not supported by a satisfactory number of documents. The period of the next fifty years, does not have such faults. Hundred years ago, on November 15th according to the Julian calendar, that is, on November 27th according to the Gregorian calendar, 1897, in the old building of the State Chemical Laboratory (today the building of the Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy in Njegoseva Street) in Belgrade, eleven Belgrade chemists gathered together. On the previous day, November 14th, 1897 according to the Julian calendar, that is, November 26th according, to the Gregorian calendar, they all received summons by the professor of the Velika Skola (later the University) and director of the State Chemical Laboratory, Dr. Marko T. Leko so that, as was written by his own hand in the mentioned summons, "they could raise the question of founding the Serbian Chemical Society." The immediate cause for this gathering., as can be seen from this note, was a letter sent to Prof. Leko by "The Main Committee of the 111 International Congress of Applied Chemistry which was to take place in Vienna in July 1898." In this letter it was suggested that a board should also be organized for Serbia with the task to incite among, colleagues as great an attendance at the Congress as possible.