Adam Paulsen

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Adam FW Paulsen

Adam Frederik Wivet Paulsen (born January 2, 1833 in Nyborg , Denmark , † January 11, 1907 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish physicist .

Life

He received his school education at the Metropolitan Koln in Copenhagen and at the Sorø Akademi . He then worked as a private teacher and at the land registry . He began studying physics at the University of Copenhagen , which he completed in 1866 with a master's degree . From 1873 he gave lessons at the metropolitan cities. In 1878 he was hired there as an adjunct . During this time Paulsen wrote a three-volume work on the basic forces of physics ( Naturkræfterne , 1874–1879).

1880 brought Niels Hoffmeyer him to prepare for the Danish expedition in the forthcoming First International Polar Year to the Danish Meteorological Institute . Two years later Paulsen drove with Carl Ryder and four other employees to Godthåb on Greenland and built the research station on what is now Kirkebakken, where meteorological and geomagnetic observations were made from August 1882 to August 1883 . He was particularly interested in studying the northern lights , the nature of which has not yet been understood.

After Hoffmeyer's death, Paulsen succeeded him as director of the Danish Meteorological Institute. He continued to deal with the aurora borealis and published numerous scientific articles on this topic. In 1893 he was the first to connect the "cathode radiation" emanating from a negative electrode , the nature of which as electron radiation was only recognized by Joseph John Thomson in 1897 , with the phenomenon. By 1896 Paulsen developed a comprehensive theory for the origin of the aurora borealis. In it he postulated that this would be emitted by air molecules excited by cathode radiation from space. He came very close to modern ideas. In 1899 Paulsen undertook an expedition to Akureyri in northern Iceland , mainly to record spectra of aurora borealis in visible and ultraviolet light to support his theory . Two spectrometers were specially developed for this purpose and manufactured by Otto Toepfer in Potsdam and Philibert Pellin (1847–1923) in Paris. Since it was difficult to take pictures of the northern lights at the time when photography was developing , the artist Harald Moltke took part in the trip and made several oil paintings . A year later, an expedition to Utsjoki in the far north of Finland followed , in which 67-year-old Paulsen no longer took part. He died in 1907.

Honors

Paulsen was a knight of the Dannebrog Order (1883) and holder of the Dannebrog Men’s Badge of Honor (1898).

Fonts (selection)

  • Natural power. Deres Love og vigtigste Anvendelser , PG Philipsens Forlag, Copenhagen 1874–1879.
  • Résumé des Travaux de L'Expédition Polaire Danoise Internationale , Copenhagen 1884.
  • Sur la nature et l'origine de l'aurore boreale In: Exploration Internationale des Regions Arctiques, 1882-83, Expedition Danoise, Observations faites a Godthaab , Vol. I, Copenhagen 1894.
  • Nordlysets strålingsteori . In: Nyt-Tidsskrift for Fysik og Kemi 1, 1896, pp. 161-172.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Susan Barr: Denmark's Station at Godthaab, Greenland . In: Susan Barr, Cornelia Lüdecke (Ed.): The History of the International Polar Years (IPYs) . Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 2010, pp. 40–42. ISBN 978-3-642-12401-3 , doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-642-12402-0 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Paulsen, Adam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Paulsen, Adam Frederik Wivet (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish physicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Nyborg , Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1907
Place of death Copenhagen