Franz Joseph Mahler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franz Joseph Mahler (born August 12, 1795 in Staufen (Allgäu) , † June 21, 1845 in Munich ) was a German instrument maker and inventor. He created optical and mechanical instruments for the leading astronomers and observatories of his time.

Life

Franz Joseph Mahler came from a respected family of watchmakers from Staufen. His father Joseph Mahler was the head of the then Austrian town and, after its incorporation into the Kingdom of Bavaria ( municipal edict 1818), of the now so-called municipality of Oberstaufen . His brother Franz Mahler was an important manufacturer of small clocks; he succeeded in making an important invention for the self-winding of pocket watches.

After training in his father's company and further stations, Mahler became an employee of Joseph Fraunhofer in Munich. After his death, he and his brother-in-law were given the technical management of the optical institute by Joseph von Utzschneider . In 1839 the two of them also became the owners of this company.

plant

Mahler further developed the processes of his great teacher Fraunhofer and maintained the worldwide technical management of his company for opto-mechanical precision instruments. In contrast to Fraunhofer, Mahler concentrated more on mechanical components; he did not make any appearances with epoch-making optical innovations.

The devices developed by Mahler and manufactured under his direction allowed extremely fine angle measurements and precise automatic tracking of telescopes .

Instruments from Mahler's production were used in observatories all over the world and allowed groundbreaking discoveries in astronomy.

Web links

  1. ↑ Joachim Rienitz:  Mahler, Franz Joseph. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 689 f. ( Digitized version ).

literature

  • Thilo Ludewig: Heimatbuch des Markt Oberstaufen and the former imperial rule of Staufen , 1983
  • Friedrich August Schmidt and Bernhard Friedrich Voight (eds.): Chapter Franz Joseph Mahler Online excerpt from Neue nekrolog der Deutschen , Verlag Bernhard Friedrich Voight, Weimar 1847, pp. 548-550
  • FA Brockhaus (ed.): Chapter Joseph von Fraunhofer Online excerpt from General German Real Encyclopedia for the educated stands. Conversations-Lexikon, Volume 6 , FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1865, p. 558
personal data
SURNAME Mahler, Franz Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German instrument maker and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1795
PLACE OF BIRTH Staufen (Allgäu)
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1845
Place of death Munich