Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann

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Gustav Wiedemann in Basel

Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann (born October 2, 1826 in Berlin , † March 23, 1899 in Leipzig ) was a German physicist and physical chemist.

Career

As the son of a Berlin businessman, Wiedemann initially attended a private school and, from 1838, the Cölln humanistic high school. He then completed his studies in physics, chemistry and mathematics at the Berlin University , where he made friends with Hermann von Helmholtz . After completing his habilitation there in 1851, he taught first as a private lecturer in Berlin and from 1854 as a professor at the University of Basel (1854–1863), the Technical University of Braunschweig (1863–1866) and the Technical University of Karlsruhe (1866–1871) . In 1871 he was offered the first known chair for physical chemistry at the University of Leipzig . In 1887 he switched to the chair for physics and Wilhelm Ostwald took over the physics institute at the university. During this time Ostwald laid the foundation stone for physical chemistry together with Svante Arrhenius , Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff and Walther Nernst .

Wiedemann mainly dealt with the polarization of light as well as with questions of electricity and magnetism . In 1853, together with Rudolph Franz in Berlin, he found the connection between electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity of metals. The Wiedemann-Franz law named after them states that the ratio of electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity is almost the same for all pure metals at constant temperature .

One of the most important works by Wiedemann in Leipzig is the determination of the absolute electrical resistance of mercury with devices by Wilhelm Eduard Weber and Karl Friedrich Zöllner , which he improved. Wiedemann determined the length of a mercury column, which has a resistance of 1 ohm with a cross section of 1 mm²: He determined the exact length of this mercury column to be 1.0626 m. On the basis of this measurement result, the internationally valid unit of measurement, ohm, was made binding in 1893 .

Furthermore, Wiedemann discovered the torsion of a current-carrying magnetic rod, later referred to as the Wiedemann effect . The handbook he wrote, The Science of Electricity, was considered a standard work in physics for a long time. As the successor to Johann Christian Poggendorff , he took over the publication of the Annals of Physics and Chemistry after his death .

From his marriage to his wife Clara geb. Mitscherlich, daughter of the Berlin chemist Eilhard Mitscherlich , had sons Eilhard Wiedemann (physicist) and Alfred Wiedemann ( Egyptologist ).

In 1871 he was accepted as a full member of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences . From 1877 he was a member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala and the Royal Physiographical Society in Lund , from 1879 of the Prussian Academy of Sciences , from 1880 of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and from 1883 of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences . Also in 1883 he became a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences . In 1882 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina , in 1888 a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences, and in 1893 a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences . Since 1884 he was a foreign member of the Royal Society and since 1892 honorary member ( Honorary Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . He was a member of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors . In 1897 he received the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art .

Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann died in Leipzig in 1899 at the age of 72. He was buried in the mausoleum of the Mitscherlich family in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Schöneberg near Berlin.

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Commons : Gustav Wiedemann  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ University of Leipzig 1871 first chair of physical chemistry, 1887 in the "Second Chemical Institute", Brüderstr. 34, and in 1898 in the new "Ostwald Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry", Linnestr. 2
  2. ^ Members of the SAW: Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann. Saxon Academy of Sciences, accessed on December 13, 2016 .
  3. ^ List of members Leopoldina, Gustav Wiedemann
  4. ↑ 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. 258.
  5. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 22, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Members of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors 1857
  7. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. p. 310.
personal data
SURNAME Wiedemann, Gustav Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin , Germany
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1899
Place of death Leipzig , Saxony, Germany