Alois von Beckh-Widmanstätten

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Alois Beckh von Widmanstätten , with full name and title also Alois Joseph Franz Xaver Beckh, Edler von Widmanstetten , (born July 12, 1754 in Graz , † June 10, 1849 in Vienna ) was an Austrian scientist .

Life

Beckh von Widmanstätten studied natural sciences at the Karl Franzens University in Graz . As a result, he took over the family printing company from his father , which he enlarged and expanded with a typesetting company.

During this time he continued to devote himself to the natural sciences. Shortly after the Montgolfier brothers , he also carried out tests in Vienna with hot air balloons that had already climbed 200 meters. However, these attempts were no longer pursued.

As a result of the Josephine reforms , he lost the monopoly of the printing company and was suddenly exposed to a competitive situation. Complemented by disputes in the family, he lost interest in the print shop. First he leased it, but finally sold it in 1807 to Andreas Leykam , who with his publishing house became the most important publishing house in Graz.

In 1804 he took over the management of the Pottendorfer spinning mill , which he resigned in 1807. At the insistence of Emperor Franz I , he became director of the newly established Imperial and Royal Factory Products Cabinet , which was initially in the Hofburg and later in the Sprintzenstein Palace in the first district . In this exhibition many new products from the entire area of ​​the Austrian Empire from the just beginning industry were presented.

When considering moving the collection to a new building, he met Karl Franz Anton von Schreibers , who ran the mineral collection in the Hofburg . This collection also included numerous exhibits of stones that fell from the sky . Thus Widmanstätten became aware of the meteorites and began numerous experiments in which these iron parts were ground and etched with nitric acid, whereby lamellar patterns characteristic of the iron meteorite structure appeared. As a result, he also made prints of these patterns using printing ink. But he never published his discoveries himself. In the works of his friend scribe, they were later known as Widmanstättensche figures .

The product cabinet was to be incorporated into the Polytechnic Institute (predecessor of today's Technical University ) in 1814 . He himself was supposed to be given a chair there, but he did not accept it because he felt this appointment as a humiliation. Finally he went to England with Johann von Austria and Ludwig von Austria-Tuscany .

In 1817 he was retired and at times consulted as an expert, but lived in seclusion. At his request, it was never painted, so that there is no picture of it today. He died in 1849. The lunar crater Widmannstätten (1973) and the asteroid (21564) Widmanstätten are named in his honor.

literature

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 21564 Widmanstatten (1998 QQ101) JPL Small-Body Database Browser, (accessed on January 23, 2015); 21564 Widmanstätten engl. Wikipedia
personal data
SURNAME Beckh-Widmanstätten, Alois von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beckh von Widmanstätten, Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian scientist
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1849
Place of death Vienna