Ignaz of Mitis

Ignaz Edler von Mitis, lithograph by Roller, 1832

Ignaz Edler von Mitis (born May 4, 1771 in Vienna , † September 4, 1842 in Baden near Vienna ) was an Austrian technician and chemist.

Life

Ignaz Mitis was the son of Hofrat Ferdinand Georg von Mitis. He attended the Theresianum , among other places, and entered civil service in 1793. In the following years he left this and devoted himself to studying chemistry . With his father he founded a very successful chemical factory in Kirchberg am Wechsel . In addition to other products, the so-called "Mitis Green" was also produced here. It is a copper (II) arsenite acetate, which was also traded as " Schweinfurt green " or "Paris green" and was discovered by Mitis in 1805. After the death of his father, he continued the company until 1818. Now he took over the management of all factories and mines of Count Theodor Batthyány in Hungary, Styria and Carinthia. In 1823 he founded a public limited company to build the first chain bridge in Vienna, the Sophienbrücke (today Rotunda Bridge ) over the Danube (today Danube Canal ) and was also involved in the construction management. The Sophienbrücke, a footbridge for riders and pedestrians, was equipped with wrought-iron chains. In 1828 he undertook the construction of a second chain bridge according to his own plans (Carls-Kettensteg, also over today's Danube Canal). This bridge was the first steel chain bridge in Vienna.

In 1829 Mitis took part in the horse-drawn railway between Linz and Budweis , the first in Austria. In 1830, after being elected as a decree of the Lower Austrian estates, he resigned the management of this railway line in order to devote himself entirely to his new task. In 1896, Mitisgasse in Vienna- Penzing (14th district) was named after him.

Fonts

• The Sophienbrücke or descriptive presentation of the first chain bridge in Vienna . Vienna 1826 and 1830.
• Handbook of Popular Mechanics . Vienna 1828.
• The Carlsbrücke or description of the first steel chain bridge in Vienna, together with a complicated description of all previous experiments on steel's elasticity and strength . Vienna 1829.

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Mitis, Ignaz Edler von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 18th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1868, p. 370 f. ( Digitized version ).
• P. Mechtler:  Mitis Ignaz von. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 6, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7001-0128-7 , p. 321.
• Gustav Otruba :  Mitis, Ignaz von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 567 f. ( Digitized version ).