BALLING, Karel Josef Napoleon

B. is considered the founder of alcoholic fermentation and his work also had a very strong impact on other areas of chemical technology in the 19th century. Especially admirable is his way of working, especially his systematic approach to research activity, both in theory and practice.
With the support of the domestic teacher he in 1820 successfully passed the final exam at the Plzeň grammar school and obtained the right to study at the Polytechnic Institute in Prague. In studies he did not restrict to technical subjects, but he attended a number of other lectures at the university as well. After graduating, he was employed at the Polytechnic Institute, first as assistant and from 1835 as Professor of Chemistry.
In addition to the technology of sugar production, B. also lectured on the use of chemistry in metallurgy. In 1850 he established an analytical laboratory and prepared exercises and lectures. The results of his extensive research, strongly associated with problems of industrial technology of preparing malt, production of beer and alcohol, wine, vinegar and yeast were published in four volumes between 1845 and 1847. Even in Germany, England and America there was a lot of interest for this books which resulted in many reprints. For the purposes of the industry he designed the simple saccharimeter, which measures the percentage of sugar content in a liquid. The central part of the measuring device is a cork buoy with a hollow glass filled with mercury or lead ballast, which is connected to the index and the scale via springs. One B's degree on the scale responds to one percentage of saccharose. B. also developed procedures for the use of molasses in the production of spirits and alcohol, as well as the use of limestone chlorides in sugar factories. He was also occupied with the determination of calorific value of coal and with melting processes in metallurgy.

In addition to professional and educational activities B. was also active in the field of public education and promotion. He was an active member of many industrial and commercial associations and he also received numerous awards, particularly for the organization of exhibitions. At the first World Fair in London in 1891 he led the Austria-Hungary presentation, which he repeated in four years in Paris. Although he was a native German, he worked in the patriotic-economic association for the Kingdom of the Czech Republic and was committed to promoting the cultivation of flax and black coal powered locomotives.
From 1864 the Polytechnic Institute was divided into two separate language departments, while B. in 1866 became a Chancellor of the German department. From 1848 he was also a full member of the Czech scientific society and a corresponding member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences.