Ernst von Rebeur-Paschwitz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ernst Ludwig August von Rebeur-Paschwitz (born August 9, 1861 in Frankfurt (Oder) , † October 1, 1895 in Merseburg ) was a German astronomer and geophysicist.

Ernst von Rebeur-Paschwitz was the son of a government assessor and later district president. His younger brother was the admiral of the imperial fleet Hubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz (1863-1933). After graduating from high school, he studied astronomy and mathematics first in Leipzig, later in Geneva and Berlin. He received his doctorate in Berlin in 1883 with a thesis "On the movement of comets in resisting media" and dealt in particular with comets near the sun.

He then worked at the observatories in Berlin and Karlsruhe, where he was busy observing the sun, but had to give up his assistant position in 1888 because of his tuberculosis disease . In 1889 he obtained his habilitation for astronomy in Halle . This was followed by a longer stay on Tenerife, which von Rebeur-Paschwitz used for another series of observations. However, the hoped-for recovery did not materialize.

One focus of his work was the improvement of a horizontal pendulum , which was actually designed to measure changes in the vertical direction caused by the movements of the earth's crust under the influence of astronomical bodies. One of these horizontal pendulums was in Potsdam, a second in Wilhelmshaven, where Ernst von Rebeur-Paschwitz was able to record the ground movement of an earthquake that occurred in Japan in 1889 ( Kumamoto earthquake ). Because the signal appeared on both pendulums, he was able to rule out an incorrect measurement. This was the first registration of a long-range quake, so that von Rebeur-Paschwitz can be regarded as one of the fathers of modern seismology . Another remote earthquake registration he succeeded three years later in Strasbourg .

Despite severe tuberculosis and his health deteriorating further, he managed to publish the results of his series of observations. Ernst von Rebeur-Paschwitz spent the last few years in his parents' house, where he was cared for until his death.

In honorable memory of the discovery and achievement of the scientist who died young, the German Geophysical Society awards the Rebeur-Paschwitz Prize for outstanding scientific achievements in geophysics.

Publications

  • The horizontal pendulum and its use to observe the absolute and relative changes in direction of the plumb line , Nova Acta of the quays. Leop. Carol. German Academy of Nature, Vol. 60, No. 1, Halle 1892.
  • Horizontal pendulum observations at the Imperial University Observatory of Strasbourg 1892-1894 , Contribution to Geophysics, Vol. II, Stuttgart, 1895.
  • About the comet from 1882 , habilitation thesis, publications of the observatory in Karlsruhe, Vol. 3, 1889.
  • About the Zöllner horizontal pendulum and new attempts with the same 1886 , negot . of natural science Karlsruhe Association, 1888.
  • The Earthquake of Tokyo April 18, 1889 , Nature, Vol. 40, 294-295 (July 25, 1889) doi : 10.1038 / 040294e0 ; Commentary on this publication by Cargill Knott: Nature, Vol. 40, pp. 32-32 (14 Nov 1889), doi : 10.1038 / 041032a0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Degener: Potsdam bomb explosion helps research . In: Märkische Allgemeine . July 1, 2020, ISSN  0863-7075 , p. 16 ( digitized version [accessed July 7, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Rebeur-Paschwitz, Ernst von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rebeur-Paschwitz, Ernst Ludwig August von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer and geophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt (Oder) , Germany
DATE OF DEATH October 1, 1895
Place of death Merseburg , Germany