Gerard Moll

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Gerrit Moll

Gerrit Moll (also: Gerard Moll ; born January 18, 1785 in Amsterdam ; † January 17, 1838 ibid) was a Dutch professor of mathematics, astronomy and physics.

Life

His father Gerard Moll (1755-1812) was a businessman. Like his father, Gerrit was supposed to do a commercial apprenticeship, which didn't particularly interest him. From 1801 he spent his free time with astronomical observations with Johan Frederik Keyser (1766-1823) ( Frederik Kaiser's uncle) and in 1804, on a trip to London, he acquired his first sextant from Edward Troughton . In order not to be drafted into the French army, his father had him enrolled at the Amsterdam Athenaeum Illustre .

He studied in Amsterdam with the professor of philosophy, physics and astronomy Jean Henri van Swinden , and Hendrik Constantijn Cras and David Jacob van Lennep . From 1810 to 1812 he studied with Delambre in Paris . From 1812 he was also the director of the observatory in Utrecht as the successor to Jan Frederik van Beeck . Moll was professor of mathematics and astronomy from 1812 to 1815. On October 28th, the University of Utrecht awarded him his Ph. D. honoris causa. From 1815 to 1838 he was in Utrecht as the successor to Johannes Theodorus Rossijn († 1817), professor of mathematics and experimental philosophy . In 1818/19 he was the rector of the university . In 1826 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

In the winter of 1824/25 he measured the speed of sound with Captain Parry and Lieutenant Foster in Port Bowen . They fired cannons from a mountain at night and determined a value of 332.05 m / s from the difference between the flash of light and the bang.

After William Sturgeon's electromagnet was demonstrated to him on a visit to London in 1828, he also built one, whose load capacity he increased to 65 kg from 1831–1833. In 1831 he defended John Dalton's atomic theory in an anonymous letter . On May 5, 1832, he observed the transit of Mercury .

After he succumbed to typhus in Amsterdam, he was buried in Amerongen next to his mother, the poet Anna Diersen (1766-1831). A distant relative was the physics professor Willem Jan Henri Moll (1876–1947).

Publications

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Portret (Gerrit Moll) ( Memento from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b Dutch Physicists Prof. Dr. Gerrit Moll (astronomer, nautical expert) (velocity of sound, electromagnet) ( Memento from January 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Berigt aangaande het leven en de wetenschappelijke deserve van wijlen the hoogleeraar Gerrit Moll by R. van Rees
  4. ^ Digitaal Wetenschapshistorisch Centrum (DWC): Moll, Gerard (Gerrit, 1785–1838)
  5. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed March 22, 2020 .
  6. ↑ On Captain Parry's and Lieutenant Foster's Experiments on the Velocity of Sound, by Gerard Moll, 1828
  7. ^ WB Taylor: A Memoir of Joseph Henry ; P. 220
  8. ↑ HAM Snelders: The electromagnetic experiments of the Utrecht physicist Gerrit Moll
  9. ↑ Science & Society Picture Library: Image of scene royal institution: gerrit moll and john dalton, c 1831-1840.
  10. ^ Nathan Reingold and Charles Babbage: Babbage and Moll on the State of Science in Great Britain , The British Journal for the History of Science Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jun., 1968), pp. 58-64.
  11. ↑ biografischportaal.nl: Anna Diersen
  12. ↑ inghist.nl: Diersen, Anna (1766–1831)
  13. ↑ inghist.nl: Moll, Willem Jan Henri (1876–1947)
personal data
SURNAME Minor, Gerard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Minor, Gerrit
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch university professor, professor of mathematics, astronomy and physics
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1785
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1838
Place of death Amsterdam