Berend Wilhelm Feddersen

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Berend Wilhelm Feddersen (born March 26, 1832 in Schleswig , † July 1, 1918 in Leipzig ) was a German physicist .

Life

Berend Wilhelm Feddersen, son of a notary, first attended high school in Schleswig . As the Danish influence grew stronger in the city, he went to the grammar school in Gotha in 1850 and passed his Abitur there in 1851. He then began studying chemistry and physics in Göttingen, where he joined the Hannovera fraternity , which he continued in Berlin and Kiel, where in 1857 he was awarded a Dr. phil. received his doctorate.

Feddersen lived as a private scholar in Leipzig from 1858 . In 1859, in experiments with the Leiden bottle , he succeeded in demonstrating that every electrical spark discharge is composed of individual (damped) vibrations. He recognized that electrical oscillations arise in a circuit consisting of a coil, capacitor and resistor, and with this discovery of the electrical oscillating circuit, he laid the foundation for the work of fraternity member Hertz and Nobel laureate Marconi , which revolutionized communications transmission a generation later. This made Feddersen one of the founders of radio technology (wireless communication technology).

However, his name and his groundbreaking experiments fell into oblivion over time. He therefore decided to transfer the equipment he had used for the successful experiments to the Deutsches Museum in Munich. They can be viewed today in the “Physics” exhibition section in the “Electromagnetic Vibrations” room.

In 1893, Feddersen was co-editor of the biographical-literary concise dictionary founded by Johann Christian Poggendorff on the history of the exact sciences . In 1918 he donated 100,000 marks so that the work could be continued.

The Feddersen couple also made donations to social institutions in the city of Leipzig. The couple bequeathed their city villa to the University of Leipzig in their will.

Wilhelm Feddersen became a full member of the Saxon Society of Sciences in 1903 .

In 1912 King Friedrich August III awarded him . of Saxony the title "Privy Councilor".

Works (selection)

  • Contributions to the knowledge of the electrical spark . Mohr, Kiel 1857 (also dissertation, University of Kiel 1854).
  • Theodor des Coudres (Ed.): Discharge of the Leiden bottle, intermittent, continuous, oscillatory discharge and applicable laws. Treatises ... 1857-1866. With a portrait of the author in heliogravure and 3 lithographic plates . W. Engelmann Verlag, Leipzig 1908 (Ostwald's classics of the exact sciences; Vol. 166).
  • To discover the electric waves . Leipzig 1909.

literature

swell

  • Dietrich von Engelhardt (ed.): Biographical encyclopedia of German-speaking natural scientists . Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11629-2 .
  • Herder Lexicon natural scientist . Herder, Freiburg / B. 1979, ISBN 3-451-18031-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henning Tegtmeyer : Directory of members of the fraternity of Hannovera Göttingen, 1848–1998 , Düsseldorf 1998, page 16
  2. ↑ Gerald Wiemers and Eberhard Fischer: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Leipzig from 1846 to 1996, Akademie Verlag, Leipzig, 1997, p. 57.
  3. ^ Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig
  4. ^ German Biographical Yearbook, published by the Association of the German Academies, transition volume II. 1917–1928, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt Stuttgart, 1928, p. 686.
personal data
SURNAME Feddersen, Berend Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Feddersen, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Schleswig
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1918
Place of death Leipzig