Carl Mainka

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Carl Mainka (born January 31, 1874 in Opole , † December 25, 1943 in Ratibor ) was a German geophysicist and seismologist .

Life

Carl Mainka was born in Opole and studied in Breslau . There he received his doctorate in 1900 (with Zimmermann, Neugebauer). phil. with the topic "Investigation into the extension of the lunar body towards the earth". His first activities led Carl Mainka to the observatories in Hamburg , Bonn and Göttingen . From 1906 he worked as an assistant at the main earthquake research station in Strasbourg . From 1920 he stayed in Göttingen and was head of department at ERDA from 1921 to 1925.

In 1926 Mainka lived in Racibórz, where he began to build a seismic station that still serves its purpose today. It is the Silesian Geophysical Observatory Racibórz (Śląskie Obserwatorium Geofizyczne w Raciborzu). In the same year Mainka took over a professorship at what was then the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelms University in Breslau.

In several stations he installed measuring devices he developed himself. A device is known as horizontal seismometer associated with his name ( Mainkapendel called). His services in this sector also include a vibration meter and the bifilar cone pendulum.

Based on the principle of the Mainkapendel, Ion Curea constructed two horizontal seismographs for the new seismographic station of the University of Timișoara , which were put into operation in 1942. This construction work received a lot of support from the mayor at the time and was able to be completed with the help of the local manufacturer Moklosi.

Carl Mainka continued the seismological research in the mining area of Upper Silesia until his death. His estate is now mainly in Racibórz. The burial took place in the Protestant cemetery in Ratibor.

Special services

In the course of his work, he created the first seismic network in Europe. These include the measuring points in Ratibor, Hindenburg , Beuthen , Gleiwitz , Biskupice (district of Zabrze ), Peiskretscham and in a 500 m deep mining station in Roßberg (today Rozbark, district of Bytom ).

Carl Mainka was the editor of the collection of geophysical writings (published by Gebr. Bornträger, Berlin) and a member of the German Geophysical Society - DGG (1922–1924 German Seismological Society).

Patent dispute

Carl Mainka led a dispute about the patentability of a "method for determining the structure of mountain strata" against its submitter Ludger Mintrop , which extended from 1919 to 1930. First he obtained a declaration of invalidity of DRP 371963 from the Reich Patent Office in 1927, but this was legally revoked on June 28, 1930 with a judgment by the Leipzig Reich Court.

literature

  • Franz Jacobs, Bernd Tittel, Michael Börngen, Johannes Schweitzer: Carl Mainka and the patent dispute DRP 371963 . In: DGG-Mitteilungen 4 . 2006, ISSN  0934-6554 , p. 28–30 ( dgg-online.de [PDF; accessed on July 10, 2010]).
  • Carl Mainka: The bifilar cone pendulum . (Instrument for recording earthquakes). In: Natural Sciences . Volume 1, No. 36 . Springer, September 1913, ISSN  0028-1042 , p. 866-867 , doi : 10.1007 / BF01491424 .
  • Mainka, Carl. In: Enciclopedie on line. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brief curriculum vitae in his dissertation, Investigation of the lengthening of the lunar body towards the earth , 1900, online at Digitale-sammlungen.de , seen on December 2, 2014
  2. ↑ Małgorzata Labus, Wojciech Wojtak, Jan Kalabiński: The work of the geophysical observatory in Racibórz (Ratibor) . In: Der Anschnitt, Vol. 63 (2011) Issue 4-5, p. 187. online at www.polsl.pl , viewed on December 6, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Mainka, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geophysicist and seismologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Opole
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1943
Place of death Racibórz