Hugh Ivan Gramatzki

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The grave of Hugh Ivan Gramatzki in the Kleinmachnow cemetery b. Berlin

Hugh Ivan "John" Gramatzki (born August 12, 1882 in Shillong (India), † March 14, 1957 in Kleinmachnow near Berlin) was a German astronomer / astrophysicist, designer, entrepreneur and author.

Life

Gramatzki's father, Emil Ludwig Gramatzki (1838–98), who came from East Prussia , worked as an engineer for the administration of Shillong in India. His mother was Martha Catharina Gramatzki, b. Hensel.

Because of his father's profession, Gramatzki spent his youth in India until 1896. After returning to Germany, he went to high school in Munich. He studied natural sciences at the Technical University of Karlsruhe until 1907 , became an engineer and served as a naval officer during the First World War .

He was already writing novels and short stories during the First World War. In addition, after the war he wrote scripts for the film and, from 1923 on, popular science radio broadcasts on astronomy. In 1929 his last prose work was published .

In 1922, together with Otto and Bielicki, Gramatzki founded the Astro Society Bielicki & Co ("Astro-Berlin"), which produced astronomical instruments and lenses for film and still cameras. A private observatory was available to him in Kleinmachnow. Despite the disintegration of the "Society of Astronomical Lovers" founded in 1921, Gramatzki headed the Berlin local group as the "Berlin Astronomical Association" (aka "Gramatzki Society"). From 1922 to 1933 he published eight articles in the specialist journal Astronomische Nachrichten . In 1928 his first book on astronomical observation was published.

In 1932 he married Elsa Suchland in Berlin. In the 1930s, Gramatzki increasingly turned to astrophotography and photometry - an area in which he received his doctorate in 1937. After the Second World War , Gramatzki worked as a freelancer for the ( East Berlin ) German Academy of Sciences .

Gramatzki, “the poetic physicist”, was considered a “[v] crazy outsider” by those who moved to Kleinmachnow in the 1950s, but who made his hometown famous. Gramatzki died in Kleinmachnow in 1957 at the age of 74. He was buried in the forest cemetery there.

Artistic and media work

Gramatzki wrote the novels Der Kristall (1916 or 1917) and Elavalill, Der Himmelsfahrer (1923). The film portal shows four film scripts written by him: The telephone of death (1918), How fate plays (1919), The woman in the dolphin or 30 days on the seabed (1920) and The secret of Totenstein Castle (1920). In 1929 Gramatzki published the book The White Animal about his childhood in India (1929).

Sometimes he used the pseudonyms "Jan Gramatzki" and "Ivan Gramatzki" ( Jan and Ivan etymologically = John or Johannes ).

In 1923 Gramatzki wrote some of the first German popular science radio reports. He dealt with astronomical topics, on which (in the sense of an early "multimedia") some illustrations appeared in advance in the relevant radio programs.

Gramatzki was a good piano player who also gave concerts; he was temporarily the 2nd chairman of a Richard Wagner Society.

Scientific work

The transfocator with movable lens element "B" invented by HI Gramatzki

HI Gramatzki worked in several scientific and technical areas. Based on his interest in astronomy, two empirical works on the brightness fluctuations of the Polar Star (1922) and on the spectroscopic determination of the effective visual wavelengths of the brighter fixed stars (1924), for which he constructed a new measuring instrument.

Soon, however, the focus was on theoretical work that intervened in the astrophysical debates about the interpretation of the shifting of spectral lines by ( Doppler effects ) (1924, 1925) and dealing with the probability of the observability of binary star systems (1928). Finally, Gramatzki developed a "non-Archimedean mathematics" that should be used as the basis for a new mechanics and physics (1928). In non-Archimedean mathematics, Archimedes' axiom does not apply, but a number of results from Einstein's theory of relativity are reconstructed - on this alternative basis. The conclusion of these considerations is an article in the Zeitschrift für Astrophysik , which in 1934 devised a method for differentiating whether the shift in the spectral lines of distant galaxies is based on the Doppler effect or on a decrease in the speed of light over time. For the period from 1921 to 1932, at least five letters from Gramatzki to Albert Einstein are documented in his files.

In the 1930s, Gramatzki's scientific interest shifted again to more empirical-technical questions, in particular to astronomical photography ( astrophotography ) of the planets (1930, 1933, 1937). In this context he corresponds u. a. At the beginning of the 1930s with the inventor of the Schmidt camera , Bernhard Schmidt . Gramatzki made Schmidt's invention known to the general public with words of praise in an article in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung in 1931.

Finally, in 1937, Gramatzki received his doctorate from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin with a thesis on the technology of photographic photometry of the planetary surface - he was already in his mid-fifties at the time.

For observing astronomers and other "practitioners" Gramatzki wrote several, partly introductory manuals. The books follow his scientific interests: 1928 a guide to astronomical observation , 1930 an auxiliary book of astronomical photography , 1933 a more specific work on planetary photography. Finally, in 1948, he revised the Optics Manual for practitioners founded by P. Hatschek .

As a designer, Gramatzki created powerful photo and projection lenses . Among other things, he designed a Transfokator (British Patent No. 449434) in 1928 , a lens with variable focal length that is considered to be the forerunner of modern zoom lenses . The transfocator consists of three lenses and was produced by Siemens as an auxiliary lens for camera lenses.

In 1953 Gramatzki was accepted into the German Astronomical Society . The textbook "Problems of Constructive Optics and Their Mathematical Aids", published three years before Gramatzki's death in 1954, developed a. a. a theory of zoom lenses.

Works

Novels and short stories

  • The crystal. Novel. Lehman, Berlin 1917.
  • Elavalill, the sky traveler. Novel. Pyramiden-Verlag, 1923.
  • The white animal. Experiences of a German boy in the foothills of Tibet. Illustrations and binding by Georg Walter Rößner. Schaffstein, Cologne 1929.

scientific publications

  • The change of light from Polaris. In: Astronomical News. 217 (23), 1922, pp. 453-458. doi: 10.1002 / asna.19222172303 .
  • Doppler effect and ballistic theory of light. In: Astronomical News. 223 (8), 1924, pp. 135-136. doi: 10.1002 / asna.19242230806 .
  • The visual effective wavelengths of the brighter fixed stars. Measured using a new micrometer using the grid method. In: Astronomical News. 222 (19), 1924, pp. 149-156. doi: 10.1002 / asna.19242221003 .
  • Doppler effect and ballistic theory of light. Reply to Mr. M. LaRosa's reply (AN 223.293). In: Astronomical News. 224 (15), 1925, pp. 247-252.
  • About the geometric visibility probability of coverage variables and their significance for the statistics of the δCephei variables. In: Astronomical News. 233 (7), 1928, pp. 103-108. doi: 10.1002 / asna.19282330703 .
  • About non-Archimedean mathematics as the basis of a new mechanics and physics (limit theory). 234 (2), 1928, pp. 17-32. doi: 10.1002 / asna.19282340202 .
  • Guide to astronomical observation. Dümmlers, Berlin 1928.
  • About the theoretical possibility of an anomalous Doppler effect .. In: Astronomische Nachrichten. 235 (4), 1929, pp. 103-106. doi: 10.1002 / asna.19292350403 .
  • Auxiliary book of astronomical photography. Dümmler, Berlin 1930.
  • Photographic observations of the planet Jupiter. In: Astronomical News. 249 (18), 1933, pp. 309-314. doi: 10.1002 / asna.19332491802 .
  • On the technology of the photographic photometry of the planetary surfaces. Inaugural dissertation to obtain a doctorate approved by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin. Dümmler, Berlin 1937.
  • Planetary photography. Dümmler, Berlin 1937.
  • P. Hatschek: Optics for the practitioner. Revised by Hugh John Gramatzki. 2nd Edition. Knapp, Halle (Saale) 1948.
  • Problems of constructive optics and their mathematical tools. Academy, Berlin 1954.
  • About philosophical questions in modern physics. In: German magazine for philosophy. 3, 1955, pp. 242-246.

literature

Almost all of the information that is not supported by individual references or reference to the list of works comes from

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b A. Schirrmacher: State-Controlled Multimedia Education for All? Science Programs in Early German Radio . Science & Education [0926-7220], 2010, doi: 10.1007 / s11191-010-9328-x
  2. ↑ E. Mädlow: Memories of the Berlin Astronomical Association (BAV), also known as "Gramatzki Society" . In: Contributions to the history of astronomy in Germany , 1989, pp. 61–68.
  3. ^ WR Dick: 300 years of astronomy in Berlin and Potsdam: an overview . In: WR Dick, K. Fritze (eds.): 300 years of astronomy in Berlin and Potsdam: a collection of essays on the occasion of the founding anniversary of the Berlin observatory . Harri Deutsch Verlag, 2000, pp. 11-43.
  4. ↑ a b c d P. Walther: Muses and Graces in the Mark: 750 Years of Literature in Brandenburg (Volume II of the exhibition catalog). Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2002, p. 141.
  5. ^ H. Kretzschmar: Coming and going: Kleinmachnow - a world view . In: Neues Deutschland , December 16, 2006, wir-kleinmachnow.de accessed on August 17, 2011. From
  6. ↑ WR Dick, A. Langkavel: Memorials for astronomers in Berlin, Potsdam and the surrounding area. In: WR Dick, K. Fritze (ed.): 300 years of astronomy in Berlin and Potsdam. A collection of essays on the occasion of the founding anniversary of the Berlin observatory (= Acta Historica Astronomiae. Volume 8, accessed August 17, 2011). Deutsch, Thun, Frankfurt am Main 2000, pp. 188-209.
  7. ↑ Einstein Archives online result on February 25, 2018.
  8. ↑ B. Dufner: The sky firmly in view: a scientific biography about the astro-optician Bernhard Schmidt . Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002, p. 329
  9. ↑ B. Dufner: The sky firmly in view: a scientific biography about the astro-optician Bernhard Schmidt . Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002, p. 82
  10. ^ FG Back, H. Lowen: Generalized Theory of Zoomar Systems. In: Journal of the Optical Society of America. 48 (3), 1958, pp. 149-153.
  11. ↑ Digitized version of British Patent No. 449434 (DPATISnet, accessed August 17, 2011)
  12. ^ R. Kingslake: A Classification of Photographic Lens Types. In: Journal of the Optical Society of America. 36 (5), 1946, pp. 151-155.
  13. ^ Anonymus: Report on the meeting of the Astronomical Society in Bremen, October 8-10, 1953. In: Mitteilungen der Astronomische Gesellschaft. 5, 1953, pp. 5-8. bibcode : 1954Wedday ... 5 .... 5. .
  14. ↑ accessed on August 17, 2011
  15. ↑ accessed on August 17, 2011
  16. ↑ accessed on August 16, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Gramatzki, Hugh Ivan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gramatzki, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist, mathematician and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Shillong , India
DATE OF DEATH March 14, 1957
Place of death Kleinmachnow near Berlin