Albin Weisbach

Albin Julius Weisbach (born December 6, 1833 in Freiberg ; † February 26, 1901 in Naunhof ) was a German mineralogist .

Live and act

Grave of Albin Weisbach in Freiberg

Albin Weisbach was born in Freiberg in 1833. His father was the well-known mathematician and engineer Julius Weisbach . Weisbach spent his childhood in Freiberg and attended grammar school here from 1842 to 1850. After attending school, he studied mineralogy at the Bergakademie Freiberg from 1850 , where he joined the Corps Montania . Weisbach went on to study in Leipzig, Berlin, Göttingen and Heidelberg. His doctorate as Dr. phil. took place in 1857 at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg .

In the same year he returned to Freiberg and took on the position of assistant to August Breithaupt as a lecturer in mineralogy at the Bergakademie , completed his habilitation there in 1860 and became professor of physics three years later. In 1866 Weisbach took over from August Breithaupt and became professor of mineralogy.

In 1900 Weisbach fell ill with a nervous disease that forced him to give up teaching. He went to a mental hospital in Naunhof near Leipzig for treatment . Weisbach died here of a heart attack in 1901. He was buried in the Donatsfriedhof in Freiberg.

Merit

Albin Weisbach had excellent knowledge of mineral determination. He is considered to be the first to describe several minerals: Trögerite (1871), Walpurgin (1871), Zeunerite (1872), Uranosphärite (1873), Uranospinite (1873), Spherocobaltite (1877), Uranocircite (1877), Uranopilite (1882), Argyrodite ( 1886). The name of Chlorargyrite (1875) goes back to him.

Works

About the monstrosities of tesseral crystallizing minerals . Freiberg 1858 (doctoral thesis) ( digitized version )
Tables for determining the minerals by means of external indicators . Leipzig 1866 (several editions) ( digitized version )
Synopsis mineralogica . Freiberg 1875 (several editions)
Characteres mineralogici . Freiberg 1880 (several editions)

Honors

1876: Appointment to the mountain ridge
1893: Appointment to the Oberbergrat
1899: Appointment to the secret mountain ridge
Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Saxon Order of Civil Merit

Since 1890 Julius Albin Weisbach was a local member of the section for mineralogy and geology of the Leopoldine-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists .

literature

Victor Goldschmidt : memorial sheets to Albin Weisbach, secret Bergrath and professor of mineralogy at the Kgl. Bergakademie in Freiberg i. S. Freiberg 1902
C. Schiffner: From the life of old Freiberg mountain students. E. Maukisch, Freiberg 1935, p. 38f.

Web links

Individual evidence

personal data
SURNAME	Weisbach, Albin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Weisbach, Albin Julius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German mineralogist
DATE OF BIRTH	December 6, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH	Freiberg
DATE OF DEATH	February 26, 1901
Place of death	Naunhof near Leipzig

[1] Sachsen.digital (Person Wiki of the SLUB) - Weisbach, Albin ( Memento from December 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

[2] Thomas Witzke : discoverer of minerals from Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia (including first mentions and names)

[3] Imperial Leopoldine-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists , Issue 27, 1891: Weisbach, Julius Albin, Bergrath, Professor of Mineralogy at the k. Bergakademie in Freiberg