Ernst Ferdinand August

Ernst Ferdinand August , also Ernst August (born February 18, 1795 in Prenzlau in the Mark, † March 25, 1870 in Berlin ) was a German physicist and meteorologist . He developed or improved a number of physical apparatus, including the aspiration psychrometer named after August .

Life

August was initially taken in as an orphan by a poor foster family. From 1805 he attended the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Berlin and was taught mathematics and physics by Ernst Gottfried Fischer , among others . In 1813 he graduated from high school. From 1815 to 1815 he served as a soldier in the Wars of Liberation . After the war of liberation he studied theology and philology and in 1818 became a senior teacher at the grammar school for the gray monastery. In 1821 he switched to the Joachimsthal Gymnasium . In 1823 he married the daughter Johanna of his former teacher and later colleague Ernst Gottfried Fischer. Also in 1823 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on conic sections .

In 1827 he became director of the newly established Köllnische Realgymnasium and remained in this position until his death in 1870. During this time he developed or improved a number of physical apparatus, including a. Psychrometer , heliostat , skiostat and spiral hygroscope .

Works (selection)

• Fischer, Ernst Gottfried / August, Ernst F .: Ernst Gottfried Fischer's textbook on mechanical nature theory , Berlin [u. a.], 1827 https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10132409_00005.html

literature

Moritz Cantor: August, Ernst Ferdinand (online version) . in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 1 (1875), pp. 683-684

Web links

• Literature by and about Ernst Ferdinand August in the catalog of the German National Library

References and comments

1. ↑ Cantor (1875)