JULIUS PLANER: THE DISCOVERER OF LIQUID CRYSTALS (RENEWAL OF THE PRIORITY) (Yuliush Planer: pershovidkryvach ridkykh crystaliv (vidnovlennya priorytetu))

The life path, research and teaching effort of Julius Planer has been by far overlooked by researchers in Ukraine. Therefore, the article represents an attempt to fill this 'blank spot', and to change the conventional view on the pioneering status of botanist Friedrich Reinitzer and crystal physicist Otto Lehmann in the discovery of liquid crystals. Also, the light is shed on important details in the biography of Julius Planer, with emphasis on his coming to Lviv (Lemberg) and work as a professor of Lviv University. It's shown that the historical truth is that Julius Planer, a professor of the Lviv University, as early as in 1861, long before Reinitzer and Lehmann, observed and gave scientific description of an optical phenomenon that later became an explicit classical feature of the liquid crystal condition of a substance. Detailed information is provided of what exactly was observed and described by Planer in his scientific paper 'Notiz uber das Cholesterin'.