Carl Friedrich Tenner

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Carl Friedrich Tenner ( Russian Карл Иванович Теннер transcribed Karl Ivanovich Tenner ; born July 22, jul. / 2. August  1783 greg. In Auvere , Governorate of Estonia , † January 8 jul. / 20th January  1860 greg. In Warsaw , Kingdom Poland ) was a Baltic German geodesist and astronomer . Tenner is one of the founders of modern geodesy in the Russian Empire .

life and work

Carl Friedrich Tenner was born in 1783 near the city of Narva . The mother Elisabeth Kulmbach was probably of Estonian descent. His father Johann Tenner was the manager of the Auvere estate. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to Saare ( Sarenhof ) in what is now southern Estonia, where the father found employment as the manager of the estate of Colonel Magnus Johann von Bock († 1807).

Carl Tenner got to know two surveyors, Sengbusch and Lemm, and their work on his father's estate. Having become aware of the gifted boy through his drawings, Count Gotthard Andreas von Manteuffel (1762–1832), an acquaintance of Bocks, invited him to his estate in Rõngu . There Tenner learned mathematics , geography and other subjects with the lord's children .

There Tenner drew his first Siberia map for a scientific book by the count on trade relations between Russia and Central Asia. The book and the drawings also reached the Russian army , which became aware of the talented Tenner.

In 1802, at the instigation of the Dutch-born Russian general and cartography expert Jan Pieter van Suchtelen (1751-1836) , Tenner joined the tsarist military. Tenner studied geometry and learned astronomy from Fjodor Schubert , a member of the Academy of Sciences .

In 1805 Tenner accompanied Prince Yuri Aleksandrovich Golovkin on a diplomatic mission to China . On the way back, Tenner measured and mapped the course of the Russian-Chinese border including the fortifications. In 1808 Tenner was assigned to the tsarist army's card warehouse. Based on the trip to China, he compiled a comprehensive atlas of the area, which was published in 1809.

Between Narva and the Russian capital Saint Petersburg , at the age of 26, Tenner and other geodesists carried out measurements using the triangulation method on the Russian Baltic coast for the first time in 1809/10 . In 1810/11 the triangulation measurements were continued to Tallinn and Tartu . The beginning war against Napoleon , however, left the work unfinished.

In 1812/13 Tenner himself took part in the war, including the battles of Smolensk , Borodino , Tarutino , Vyasma , Krasnoye and the Battle of Leipzig . He was awarded the Golden Sword for his bravery.

After the end of the war, he devoted himself entirely to geodesy. From 1815 to 1822 he carried out measurements in the Vilna governorate with the greatest accuracy using the triangulation method . In 1822, under the direction of Tenner, surveying began in the governorates of Courland, Grodno and Minsk, and then from 1833 to 1843 in Volhynia and the neighboring areas. In 1845 he carried out the measurements using the triangulation method in the Kingdom of Poland , and in 1846 in Bessarabia .

One of Tenner's greatest achievements was the trigonometric leveling (approx. 2,000 km) between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea . Tenner found out that the Baltic Sea was 1.13 meters higher than the Black Sea.

Tenner paid particular attention to the shape and size of the globe. The idea of ​​measuring the meridian arc inspired both Tenner and the German astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (1793–1864), who was then a professor at the German-speaking university in Tartu ( Dorpat ) in Livonia . In 1828 both signed a cooperation agreement. Tenner suggested taking the triangulation measurements in the Vilnius Governorate as a basis and expanding them. In 1826 Tenner began astronomical observations in Latgale and Struve in Livonia . In 1828 both combined their degree measurements.

In 1844 the decision was made to extend the degree measurements from Tenner and Struve to the mouth of the Danube. Both were able to build on previous work in Bessarabia. The project was taken up in 1850 with the so-called Struve Arch , which at that time was the largest degree of measurement in the world with a length of 2,880 km. Tenner took over the measurements in the southern part of the Struve bend from the Danube to the Düna .

Tenner died in Warsaw in December 1859 on his way back from a cure he had spent in Karlsbad . He was married and had at least three sons, Jeremias, Nikolai and Eduard. The descendants also entered the Russian military.

Awards

In 1832 Tenner became an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences . He received the honorary title of general from the tsarist military.

Tenner received three prestigious orders: for his participation in the war against Napoleon in 1812, the Order of St. George and the Golden Sword. In May 1858 Prussia awarded him the order Pour le Mérite .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eesti elulood. (= Eesti Entsüklopeedia. 14). Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus, Tallinn 2000, ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 526.
personal data
SURNAME Tenner, Carl Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tenner, Karl Ivanovich; Теннер, Карл Иванович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baltic German geodesist and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1783
PLACE OF BIRTH Auvere , Estonia Governorate
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1860
Place of death Warsaw , Kingdom of Poland