Edmund Hartnack

Hartnack microscope from the time in Potsdam

Friedrich Edmund Hartnack (born April 9, 1826 in Templin ( Uckermark ), † February 9, 1891 in Potsdam ) was a German optician.

Life

Edmund Hartnack learned the mechanic trade from 1842 to 1847 with Wilhelm Hirschmann (1780–1847) in Berlin and worked from 1847 in Paris with Heinrich Daniel Rühmkorff and later with Georg Oberhäuser , who manufactured microscopes of high quality. Hartnack became a partner in Oberhäuser in 1854, took over the business in 1860 and now produced under his own name. In 1864 he hired the astronomer and mathematician Adam Prażmowski , whom he made mechanical director of the workshop in 1865. Because of the Franco-Prussian War , Hartnack had to leave Paris in 1870. He founded a new workshop in Potsdam, while Prażmowski continued to run the business in Paris. In 1879 Hartnack sold him the Paris workshop.

Hartnack has made significant contributions to microscopy through his instruments. In this way he perfected the horseshoe tripod introduced by Oberhäuser, and he succeeded in making the immersion system invented by Giovanni Battista Amici marketable by introducing a correction ring. In immersion microscopes, there is a thin film of water or oil between the slide and the lens , which significantly increases the resolution . Together with Prażmowski, he improved Nicol's prism and constructed his own lighting apparatus. The bacteriologist Robert Koch worked with microscopes from Hartnack .

Hartnack was from the medical faculty of the University of Bonn honoris causa appointed doctor and was given in 1882 by the Prussian government the title of professor.

Hartnack was married to Oberhauser's niece Johanna Maria Louise Kleinod.

literature

Jörg Zaun: Instruments for Science. Innovations in Berlin precision mechanics and optics 1871–1914 . Publishing house for science and regional history, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-929134-39-X

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Hartnack, Edmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hartnack, Friedrich Edmund (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German optician
DATE OF BIRTH	April 9, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH	Templin , Uckermark
DATE OF DEATH	February 9, 1891
Place of death	Potsdam