Johann Georg Repsold

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Johann Georg Repsold 1828, portrait by Gerdt Hardorff

Johann Georg Repsold (born September 19, 1770 in Wremen near Bremerhaven , † January 14, 1830 in Hamburg ) was a German precision mechanic and founder of the famous workshop for astronomical instruments.

biography

Bust of Johann Georg Repsold in the facilities of the Museum of Hamburg History .
"Top syringe master Repsold"
Traditional ship Repsold 1941

Repsold was the son of the preacher Johann Repsold. In addition to his general schooling, he received private lessons from Reinhard Woltman in Ritzebüttel, especially in hydraulic engineering , instrument making, drawing and mathematics .

Repsold came to Hamburg at the age of 19 and was employed there as a geometer by the city administration until 1795 . In 1796 he advanced to the position of water technician with the Elbe Deputation . Two years later he was promoted to syringe master (director of the fire brigade) and in 1809 elected chief syringe master of the entire Hamburg fire service. In addition, he devoted himself to the manufacture of precision mechanical devices as a hobby .

In 1799 he founded a small manufactory for astronomical and geodetic instruments and tools in Hamburg . Here Repsold mainly worked as a designer. By using microscopes to better read the partial circles on telescopes , Repsold was able to greatly improve the accuracy of the meridian circle . In the following years Repsold, and later his sons and grandsons, continued to expand the company. The company A. Repsold & Sons has become a leading company in the manufacture of telescopes existed and to 1919th

In 1802 Repsold built a private observatory on the former Albertus bastion above the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken , today's Stintfang (the Stintfang observatory ). From 1808 he became friends with the royal court astronomer Heinrich Christian Schumacher , who built the Altona observatory in the neighboring Danish town of Altona in 1821 and helped Repsold to improve trigonometric equipment.

In 1812, during the Napoleonic occupation , the observatory had to be demolished. In the same year Repsold applied for a new observatory on the city wall. The application wasn't approved by the Senate until ten years later, on condition that Repsold equip the observatory. The observatory was built in 1825 on the former Henricus Bastion - where the Museum of Hamburg History is today - and completed in 1828. Christian August Friedrich Peters became the first observer . In 1833 the observatory was taken over by Hamburg as a state institute. This observatory at Millerntor is the obsolete of today's observatory Bergedorf am Gojenberg (moved in 1809).

In 1830 he died while firefighting in Hamburg when he was killed by a collapsing wall. His son Adolf Repsold continued the workshop together with his older brother Georg Repsold .

Honors

Significant work

year device Focal length customer
1803 Meridian circle JG Repsold, later Göttingen observatory
1806 Circle dividing machine 2 feet JG Repsold
1806 Universal instrument JG Repsold
1817 Passage instrument Altona observatory
1820 Basic apparatus (Braaker Basis) Heinrich Christian Schumacher
1821 heliotrope Göttingen observatory
1825 Pendulum apparatus Koenigsberg observatory
1826 Passage instrument 5 feet Hamburg observatory
1828 Light apparatus Lightship Kattegat

Parallelism to Reichenbach

Personally and in terms of industrial history, there is a striking parallel to the Bavarian entrepreneur and instrument maker Georg Friedrich Reichenbach (1771–1828). He too began as a precision mechanic and designer, only 4 years later he founded a company for astronomical and geodetic instruments and thus achieved a similar importance.

literature

Publications in the Niederdeutschen Heimatblatt

  • Jens Dircksen: Three Wremer personalities from three centuries . In: Men from Morgenstern , Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 798 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven June 2016, p. 4 ( digital version [PDF; 5.8 MB ; accessed on July 27, 2019]).
  • Peter Bussler: A close friendship for the benefit of the Ritzebüttel office. Johann Georg Repsold and Amandus Augustus Abendroth . In: Men from Morgenstern, Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 814 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven October 2017, p. 1–2 ( digitized version [PDF; 5.4 MB ; accessed on July 12, 2019]).

Web links

Commons : Johann Georg Repsold  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ repsold.net
  2. ↑ Manfred Gihl: The fire fighting boats, ambulance boats and small boats of the Hamburg fire brigade , 2016, PDF
personal data
SURNAME Repsold, Johann Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German precision mechanic
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Wremen near Bremerhaven
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1830
Place of death Hamburg