Friedrich Paschen (physicist)

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Friedrich Paschen

Louis Carl Heinrich Friedrich Paschen (born January 22, 1865 in Schwerin , † February 25, 1947 in Potsdam ) was a German physicist who discovered the Paschen-Back effect in 1912 together with Ernst Back . From 1924 to 1933 he was President of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in Berlin .

Life

Friedrich Paschen was born as the son of the Prussian major Friedrich Johann Paschen (1833–1900) and his wife, the landowner's daughter Emma, ​​née. Bencard (1845; † after 1930). He studied from 1884 to 1888 at the universities of Berlin and Strasbourg , where he received his doctorate in 1888 under August Kundt . He then worked as an assistant to Johann Wilhelm Hittorf at what was then the academy in Münster and as a private lecturer at the Technical University of Hanover . In 1901 he became a full professor at the University of Tübingen . Already in his dissertation, Paschen was able to draw up the law on gas discharges named after him and made a decisive contribution to the experimental confirmation of Max Planck's radiation law .

Under his leadership, Tübingen became a center for spectroscopic research. The exploration of the spectral lines and their serial construction provided the basis for an insight into the inner atomic events. He carried out wavelength measurements of the spectral lines of hydrogen and helium and in 1912, together with Ernst Back, discovered the Paschen-Back effect, named after them, which occurs in strong magnetic fields. Paschen developed and constructed galvanometers and quadrant electrometers . Karl Wilhelm Meissner , who later became a professor at the University of Frankfurt, was among his academic students from the Tübingen period .

In 1914 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1918 he became a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and in 1922 of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1925 he was accepted as a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . In 1928 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

From 1924 Friedrich Paschen was President of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, which is now the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt , founded by Werner von Siemens and Hermann von Helmholtz can be procured by private individuals and by laboratories of higher education institutions; Testing and securing the properties of materials from which apparatus and measuring equipment are made; Checking and ensuring the uniformity and normality of constructive aids and construction parts; Testing and certification of physical measuring tools and parts of the same, as they are used to the greatest extent for the aforementioned purposes ".

After Paschen ended the celebration of the Nazis' seizure of power in the Reichsanstalt on March 8, 1933 by lowering the swastika flag, on May 1, 1933, against the advice of all professional representatives, the National Socialist and Nobel Prize winner Johannes Stark was installed in the presidency.

Friedrich Paschen taught as an honorary professor at Berlin University until his death. He died on February 25, 1947 in Potsdam.

Paschen's grave is in the south-west cemetery Stahnsdorf , block Charlottenburg.

His assistant from 1920 to 1924 (and son-in-law) was Hermann a student .

family

Paschen married Margarete (Mary) Lehnen (1869–1942) in 1901 . Their daughter Emma Henriette (1897–1975) was married to the experimental physicist Hermann Schüler (1894–1964). His grandfather was the geodesist and astronomer Friedrich Paschen , his uncle the Admiral Karl Paschen .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Paschen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnold Sommerfeld: The Bohr-Sommerfeld atomic theory , commented by Michael Eckert, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 2013, p. 16.
  2. ↑ Rudolf Huebener , Heinz Lübbig, Die Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt : Their Significance in the Structure of Modern Physics, Springer, p. 140
  3. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 185.
  4. ↑ Hans Kopfermann's biography by Schlüpmann viewed on August 21, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Paschen, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Paschen, Louis Carl Heinrich Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwerin
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1947
Place of death Potsdam