Franz Ferdinand Greiner

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Franz Ferdinand Greiner (born April 3, 1808 in Stützerbach ; † June 9, 1855 there ) developed the first industrially manufactured German thermometer together with the journeyman Wilhelm Berkes .

Act

Greiner took over his father's water mill in Stützerbach. He made a living by blowing lamp glass and also made glass beads and knickknacks . However, his attempt to manufacture thermometers was unsuccessful until he hired the wandering glassblower journeyman Wilhelm Berkes as an assistant.

Joint experiments with Berkes, who may have observed the manufacture of thermometers in France on his travels, led to success. The change to the filling liquid mercury in particular brought the breakthrough. Greiner's achievement lies primarily in recognizing the economic potential of this development and in further developing industrial production in a targeted manner.

The result was a prosperous company in which 64 different types of aerometers and thermometers as well as other physical and technical instruments were manufactured over the years . With his pioneering work in the field of manufacturing physical and chemical glass articles, Greiner laid the foundation for the development of the German thermometer industry.

Literary processing

The encounter between FF Greiner and W. Berkes and the subsequent successful manufacture of the first glass thermometer on German soil was described by the writer Bodo Kühn in his novel "Light over the mountains". He placed the plot in the historical and socio-cultural context of the living conditions of simple mountain farmers, craftsmen and glassblower families in the Thuringian Forest at the beginning of the industrial revolution. In connection with this, connections to Justus von Liebig are mentioned, who at that time had an increased need for technical glasses due to his research.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Worth knowing: Scientists. German Thermometer Museum, accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  2. ^ Herbert Kühnert:  Greiner, Franz Ferdinand. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 35 f. ( Digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Kühn, Bodo, 1912-: Light over the mountains novel from the Thuringian Forest . 5th edition Wartburg-Verl, Weimar 1995, ISBN 3-86160-135-4 .
personal data
SURNAME Greiner, Franz Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German inventor of the first industrially manufactured thermometer
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Stützerbach
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1855
Place of death Stützerbach