Friedrich Adolph Nobert

Friedrich Adolph Nobert

Friedrich Adolph Nobert (born January 17, 1806 in Barth ; † February 21, 1881 in Barth) was a German mechanic and optician . With his inventions and achievements, he founded a new era in the manufacture and testing of microscopes .

Life

Friedrich Adolph Nobert was the son of the Barther watchmaker Johann Friedrich Nobert and his wife Elisabeth, b. Teez. He attended elementary school in Barth and then apprenticed to his father. During this time he developed a pocket watch with a second hand and compensation for the influences of temperature and location, which he sent to the Berlin trade fair in 1827. The watch received a special award and brought him the acquaintance of the astronomer Johann Franz Encke , the director of the Berlin observatory , with whom he corresponded. Several scientists from the University of Greifswald gave him access to the university library and to use the collection of instruments.

He developed astronomical precision pendulum clocks with which he was able to determine the geographic longitude of Barth in 1829 . A scholarship enabled him to study at the Berlin Trade Institute, which he completed in 1833. In 1835 he moved to Greifswald , where he had accepted a position as a university mechanic. After the death of his father in 1850 he went with his wife Mathilde, nee. Saeg, back to Barth, where he took over his father's optical and mechanical workshop.

Around the middle of the 19th century he worked on perfecting a circular dividing machine , with which he achieved excellent results. At the same time, he developed a machine for longitudinal dividing, with which he engraved parallel lines on glass using a diamond needle . He succeeded in producing finely divided glass grids with a line spacing of just 0.11 micrometers, with which he reached the limits of the capabilities of optical microscopes. It was not until 1966 that these lines could be made visible using an electron microscope . These diffraction gratings , known as "Nobert test plates" with different line systems, were used to test the resolution of the microscope. For decades only he was able to manufacture the finely divided test objects.

Nobert himself manufactured powerful microscopes, marine chronometers , house clocks and grandfather clocks, which were in great demand because of their accuracy. He did all the work himself without an assistant. He managed to achieve significant improvements in the determination of the color of the stars, which caused a sensation in specialist circles.

In the German Optical Museum in Jena there are two of his microscopes and originals of his valuable graduation grids. The museum also has copies of his essays: “The Nobert Microscope” (1861) and “Studies on the Nobert Microscope” (revised 1872). His sub-machine is said to have been sold to the USA.

Honors

At the first main entrance of the Barther Friedhof there was a memorial stone for Friedrich Adolph Nobert, after whom a street and a school in Barth are named. On January 17, 2012 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Barth.

literature

• Gustav Karsten:  Nobert, Friedrich Adolph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, p. 750 f.
• Heinrich Brüggemann: Friedrich Adolf Nobert . In: Unser Pommerland , issue 11/12 1922, p. 377f.
• Friedrich Krüger: Friedrich Adolph Nobert . In: Pommersche Lebensbilder , Volume II. Stettin: Saunier 1936, pp. 69–73.
• Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 , p. 7116 .

Web links

• Hans Rewolt: Friedrich Adolph Nobert on stadt-barth.de
• Stephan Ditzen: Richard Feynman's vision of theological character: Stages in a history of micromanipulation ( PDF ; 412 kB), pp. 251–252

Individual evidence

1. ↑ www.stadt-barth.de accessed on February 15, 2012