Georg Matthias Bose

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Demonstration of an electrostatic discharge, as demonstrated by Bose. The woman standing on an insulating stool is electrostatically charged with the help of an electric machine. Just before she touches the lips of the man standing to her right, the electricity discharges in a spark. Performances of this kind were a popular means of entertaining and astonishing audiences in the 18th century through natural phenomena. (Illustration around 1800)

Georg Matthias Bose (born September 22, 1710 in Leipzig , † September 17, 1761 in Magdeburg ) was a German physicist and astronomer.

Life

Georg Matthias Bose was the son of the influential businessman Georg Heinrich Bose . He grew up in the immediate vicinity of Johann Sebastian Bach's family. After studying mathematics, natural history and medicine at the University of Leipzig, Bose earned his master's degree in philosophy in 1727 and became an assessor at the philosophy faculty in Leipzig. During his time in Leipzig he gave lectures on physics and in 1735 began to occupy himself more with the emerging science of electricity .

The electrical experiments, with which he was mainly concerned and which he called "beatifications", dealt with the electrification of the isolated human body. His spectacular public demonstrations, in which people were "electrified", caused a sensation and helped the new science to break through.

After two petitions to the king, Bose was appointed full professor of physics at the University of Wittenberg in 1738 , where he earned the "fame of a Guericke of our time" through his work on electricity . In numerous experiments he demonstrated the electrical phenomena and thus promoted understanding of the subject. He was the first to ignite gunpowder with an electric spark. The electrical machine of Francis Hauksbee he added a conductor added. This conductor stores electrical charges that can then be withdrawn from it. This gave him an effective means of increasing electric shocks. For demonstration purposes, he electrically charged a woman he had isolated. She gave guests of his lectures a kiss. Since the guests were not isolated, the electrical charge discharged and the guests received an electric shock.

At times he also gave private mathematical lessons. Because of his thorough knowledge of mathematics and the possession of a collection of mathematical instruments, his faculty proposed in 1742 that he be appointed adjunct professor of lower mathematics. However, the university rejected all possible combinations relating to lower mathematics.

Between 1749 and 1753 there was a dispute between Bose and the Wittenberg theological faculty. This accused him of having shown too much respect for the papacy to the detriment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and contrary to the religious oath he had taken. It therefore demanded the prior censorship of all his theological publications and publications relating to the Pope.

Bose saw in his correspondence with Rome probably only a contemporary, albeit spectacular exchange of ideas among educated people of different faiths in Wittenberg. He must have perceived the censorship of the theological faculty directed against him as a threat to free academic communication. So in 1749 he felt compelled to take the words "augustus musarum protector, et omnis litteraturae promotor eximius" (German: "sublime protector of the muses and all literature special patrons") from his program for the upcoming master's degree . ) to delete. A royal word of power put an end to the dispute between Bose and the theological faculty on January 15, 1753.

Bose was elected rector of the University of Wittenberg for the first time at Easter 1748. During his second term in office, which began at Easter 1760, he was unexpectedly arrested by the Prussian occupiers of Wittenberg on August 10 during the Seven Years' War . In private matters he had sent a letter to Dresden that had been intercepted by the Prussians. On suspicion of passing on a military secret, he was taken to the fortress in Magdeburg on August 26, where he died in custody in 1761.

From 1746 he was a member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris.

Act

Bose has made significant contributions to electricity through his numerous experiments. His "beatification" caused a particular sensation, which consisted of the fact that he, equipped with various metal objects, climbed onto a box isolated by a punch line and allowed himself to be electrified, making his body appear as if it were surrounded by a halo.

His numerous writings are mostly physical and astronomical in content. In his works “De attractione et electricitate” (1738), “Tentamina electrica” (1744) and “De electricitate inflammante et beatificante” he describes these processes in sophisticated language. For the Countess von Brühl, who visited him in Wittenberg, he also wrote a didactic poem "Electricity designed with a poetic pen after its discovery and progression" (1744), in which he described, among other things, his electric kiss, and which he himself ins French translated (“L 'Electricite, son origine et ses progres”, 1754). He also wrote the contribution "On the electricity of glass" to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1749. He was also active in the field of astronomy. With "Eclipseos lunaris MCCCCLVII d. III. Sept. ... secularia ... celebranda indicit" he wrote a university program about Georg Peuerbach . This was intended as an invitation to celebrate the 300th anniversary of a complete lunar eclipse observed by Peuerbach and his student Regiomontanus .

Selection of works

  1. Dissertation (Praes. Casp. Bosio) de obstetricum erroribus a medico forensi pervestigandis. Leipzig 1729
  2. Dissertatio de eclipsi terrae. Leipzig 1733
  3. Dissertation I. II. In hypothesin soni Perraultianam. Leipzig 1734
  4. Schediasma litterarium, quo contenta Elementorum Euclidis enunciat, et simul de variis editionibus post Fabricium nonnulla disserit. Leipzig 1737
  5. Programma de Marte conglaciante. Wittenberg 1733
  6. Oratio de attractione et electricitate. Wittenberg 1733
  7. D. sistens Otia Wittembergensia critico-physica: de Keplero, Newtoni praecursore Lipsia, Ptolemaeo ignota, et tabula Peutingeriana, Porcellana, Saccharo, Cochenilla veterum; Dodecade librorum rariorum, Siphone in vacuo; Anatomia ranae in vacuo extinctae, et vivae. Leipzig 1739
  8. Votiva acclamatio in reditum Principis. Leipzig 1740
  9. Programma quo secularia Torricelliana a se celebranda indicit. Leipzig 1743, also in: Calogera's Opusculi scientifici e filolugici T. 32. p. 1-58.
  10. Transitus Mercurii sub sole observatus d. 5 Nov. 1743. in Actis Erud. a. 1744. p. 121-128. French by himself under the title: Reflexions sur la dernière passage de Mercure, par le Soleil, faite à Wittebergue le 5 Nov. 1743
  11. Programma de electricitate. Wittenberg 1743
  12. Commentatio de electricitate inflammante et beatificante. Wittenberg 1744. He had these two writings printed together with the De Marte conglaciante under the following title: Teutamina electrica, in Academiis regiis, Londinensi et Parisiensi, primum, habita omni studio repetita, et novis accessionibus locupletata. Pars prior, Wittenberg 1744. French title: L Electricité, son origine et ses progrès; poëme en deux livres - traduit de l 'Allemand par M. l'Abbé Joseph Ant. de C ***. Leipzig 1754
  13. Research on the cause et on the véritable théorie de l 'électricité. Wittenberg 1745
  14. Discours sur la lumière des Diamants et de plusieurs autres corps, prononcé à Leipsic le 12 May 1745, devant leurs Altesses royales le Prince héréditaire de Saxe et le Prince Xavier. Göttingen 1745. German: Speech of the light of diamonds and other bodies in the dark, held at the Leipzig University Library. Wittenberg 1745
  15. Teutamina electrica, tandem aliquando Hydraulicae, Chymiae et vegetabilitas utilia. Pars posterior. Wittenberg 1747
  16. Observatio ecclipseos solaris et lunaris partialis, habita Witteberg 1740
  17. Programma de bibliothecae Badensis fatis. Wittenberg
  18. Programma de Osymandiae circulo aureo. Wittenberg 1749
  19. Observatio eclipseos lunaris totalis, habita Witteberg 1750
  20. Commercium epistolicum de Sesostridis, Augusti et Benedicti XIV Obelisco; obiter Pliny Historiographus et Diodorus Siculus emendantur. Greifswald 1751
  21. D. sistiens placita philosophorum de terrae motus causis. Wittenberg 1756
  22. Programma de sympathia, attractioni et gravitati substituta. Wittenberg 1756
  23. Programma iudicens eclipseos lunaris 1457 d. III Sept. quo natalis Uraniae trecentesimus felici affulget sidere, saecularia. Wittenberg 1757
  24. Observationes astronomicae, quas ex praescripto Acad. Scient. Reg. Paris. Habuit Wittembergae ; in: Acta Eruditorum 1753, P. 466-480.
  25. Apotheosis Richmanni, carmine Latino 1756. In: Extensions of knowledge and pleasure, Vol. 7, pp. 431-441
  26. Oratio habita in promotione Doctorum Philosophiae publica 1755 M. Octobri ; ibid. Vol. 8
  27. On the Electricity of Glass, that has been exposed to strong fires. In: Philosophical Transactions N. 492.

literature

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter B. Académie des sciences, accessed on September 24, 2019 (French).
  2. ↑ See digitized version and full text in the German Text Archive
personal data
SURNAME Bose, Georg Matthias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bose, Georg Mathias; Bose, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1710
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH September 17, 1761
Place of death Magdeburg