The Nobel Stamps of 1983

The stamps were engraved by Martin Mörck after originals by Dan Jonsson, Sten Eklund, and Olof Sandahl They are issued in booklets of five stamps, value 2.70 kr, and are printed by steel at the PFA.

 

The stamps portray Nobel Laureates in Chemistry:

THEODOR SVEDBERG (1884-1971) was awarded the Prize in 1926 for his studies of colloids, i.e. something between a suspension and a pure solution. If such an emulsion is rotated quickly, the heavier particles will move farther to the perifery than the lighter ones.

ARNE TISELIUS (1902-1971), who was Svedberg's assistant, was rewarded in 1948 for his work on electrophoresis, e.g. the movement of proteins in electrical fields, and on adsorption chromatography. If a solution of several substances passes through a porous mass, the various substances are adsorbed in different proportions, making it possible to separate them.

GEORGE de HEVESY (1885-1966) received the Prize (1943) for his pioneering work on radioactive isotopes as tracers in chemical reactions. De Hevesy studied how phosphates are absorbed, transported, and eliminated in the body, by adding a small amount of phosphate containing radioactive phosphorus to a large amount of ordinary phosphate, and giving the mixture to animals.

SVANTE ARRHENIUS (1859-1927) got the Prize in 1903 for his theory of electrolytic dissociation. Substances in solutions that lead electricity during electrolysis, i.e. when a current flows through the solution, are called electrolytes.

HANS von EULER-CHELPIN (1873-1964) was given the Nobel Prize in 1929 for his research into the structure of enzymes and vitamins. The stamp illustration symbolizes a reaction older than all chemical science--the fermentation of sugar into ethyl alcohol.

 

© 1983 SWEDEN POST STAMPS