Ernst Lecher

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Ernst Lecher 1919

Ernst Lecher (born June 1, 1856 in Vienna , † July 19, 1926 in Vienna) was an Austrian physicist who went down in the history of physics as the founder of measurement technology in the high-frequency range.

Life

Ernst Lecher was the son of the writer and journalist Zacharias Konrad Lecher (1829–1905), publisher and editor-in-chief of the Wiener Zeitung Neue Freie Presse . His brother was the lawyer and politician Otto Lecher . After attending the Academic Gymnasium in Vienna, Ernst Lecher studied physics at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate from the University of Innsbruck in 1879 . He was married to the philanthropist Helene Lecher (née von Rosthorn ). Konrad Lorenz was his nephew.

He began as a private lecturer in physics and went back to Vienna in 1882, where he carried out research as an assistant in the physics department of the university until 1890 and in the meantime (1884) completed his habilitation in experimental physics. Lecher was then from 1891 to 1895 professor in Innsbruck and then, as the successor to Ernst Mach, professor of experimental physics at the German university in Prague and from 1909 in Vienna. In 1892 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In recognition of his research results, the University of Vienna appointed Lecher to head the first Institute of Physics in 1909 and the Vienna Academy of Sciences accepted him as a member in 1914.

In October 1925, serious illness forced him to retire. Lecher died six months later in Vienna.

He rests in an honorary grave in the Döblinger Friedhof (group 3, number 35) in Vienna. In 1960 the Lecherweg in Vienna-Favoriten was named after him.

plant

This standing wave measuring device was developed by Ernst Lecher in 1888 to measure wavelengths and frequencies. The illustration is from a 1904 scientific laboratory equipment catalog.

Lecher began his research in the field of calorimetry around 1875. From 1880 to 1883 he dealt with the absorption of thermal radiation (infrared radiation). Afterwards Lecher dealt with the properties of the electromagnetic waves discovered by Heinrich Hertz (* 1857, † 1894) in 1886 .

In 1889, during his investigations, he invented an arrangement for the exact measurement of the wavelength and frequency of electrical waves, the Lecher line later named after him (also called Lecher wires ). This device is still used today to study standing waves in a transmission line and thus keeps the memory of the great physicist alive.

With his measurement method, Lecher was able to experimentally confirm the analogy between the propagation speed of electrical waves and the speed of light for the first time. In his other work, Lecher dealt with electrodynamic questions (e.g. unipolar induction in 1887) and around 1905/06 with the research of thermoelectric phenomena.

Ernst Lecher and his father played an important role in spreading the news of the discovery of X-rays in 1895 .

Publications

  • Study of electrical resonance phenomena, Wied. Note 41 (1890) p. 850
  • Textbook of physics for physicians, biologists and psychologists, BGTeubner Verlag, 1912 (2nd edition 1917, 3rd edition 1919, 4th edition 1921, 5th edition 1928)

literature

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ a b c d Gerhard Weinreich: On the 150th birthday of Ernst Lecher . In: DGPT (Ed.): The archive . No. 2 , 2006, p. 50 ( in the web archive of September 28, 2007 ).
personal data
SURNAME Lecher, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian physicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 1, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 1926
Place of death Vienna