Winterl Joseph Jacob

* Steyr, Austria, April 15, 1739 – † Pest, November 23, 1809 / physician, ; chemist, botanist, university professor ; ; He completed his studies at the University of Vienna, obtaining doctorates in medicine and humanities, but also studied botany at the university. He practiced medicine in Upper Austria, then became the chief physician of the Hungarian mining towns. In 1770, when the medical faculty of the University of Nagyszombat was established, he was appointed professor of the chemistry-botany department, a position he held until his death. He founded a botanical garden in Nagyszombat. The efficiency of his operation in Nagyszombat is also indicated by the fact that five of the graduates of the medical faculty wrote doctoral theses on chemistry and five on botany. He moved to Buda and then to Pest with the university. He was a supporter of the dualistic chemical system, and was the first to introduce it in Hungary. With his electrochemical investigations published in 1784, he already raised the theoretical possibility of the battery. He discovered the rhodanide iron reaction. He produced blue dye from perchlorate, determined that blue dye could also be produced from coal, examined its composition and achieved remarkable results. His mineral water analyses are significant. ; His great merit is that he introduced illustration into botanical education. In 1784, he founded the Pest Botanical Garden on a plot of land purchased with his own money in Józsefváros, where he established a flourishing orchard. He recognized many Hungarian plants and described them with new names, illustrated with pictures in the botanical garden's indexes. Together with his contemporary, Sámuel Tessedik (1742–1820), he was one of the pioneers of fruit production in the Great Plain. He adhered to Linnaeus' system. In his unfinished Index, he listed the names of 1656 plant species, and included drawings of 26 plants in copper engravings, but only indicated how many unknown species he had found. ; ; His main works: ; De metallis dubiis, 1770, Systematis ; themici, 1773, Index horti botanici Tyrnaviensis, 1775, Index secundus horti botanici Universitatis quae Pestini est (without name), ; 1788, Die Kunst, Blutlauge und mehrere zur Blaufärberei dienliche Materialien in Grossen zu bereiten und solches zur ; Blaufärberei anzuwenden, 1790, Über das Brownische System, 1798, De aqua soteria thermarum Budensium, 1804.