Johann Gottlieb Michaelis

Johann Gottlieb Michaelis , also Johann Theophil Michaelis (born June 4, 1704 in Dresden ; † December 9, 1740 there ), was the Saxon secret chamberlain, administrator of the mineral collection, the mathematical-physical cabinet and since 1739 inspector (= director) of the electoral art chamber .

Focal lens (2nd object from the left) in the exhibition of the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon

The only son of the Kirchner and optician Johann Gottfried Michaelis and his wife Maria Dorothea, geb. Schlemmer, received lessons in optics, geometry and fortification from his father and an engineer. He studied at the University of Leipzig from 1721 to 1724 and then carried out research in Dresden. He improved binoculars and was able to report detailed descriptions of the solar and lunar eclipses at that time to the Saxon court. On broken stones of the old Frauenkirche he recognized impressions of shells , which he collected on a large scale for further investigation. This collection of natural objects earned him a position at the Saxon court in 1727 as an adjunct for the art chamber, and as such he was responsible for the mathematical and physical cabinet from 1728 . Up until now he has removed, assembled and described equipment locked in boxes there.

A burning lens he built in 1728 is in the collection of what is now called the Salon. On April 15, 1735, this lens with the Latin documentation written for it earned him the election of a member ( registration number 447 ) of the Leopoldina with the nickname Archimedes II .

After Michaelis was able to reconstruct two old boards at Hartenfels Castle , whose aquatic genealogy had become illegible, using magnifying glasses in 22 weeks, he was appointed secret chamberlain in 1734 or 1736. After the death of Christoph Gottlob Lichtwer in December 1736, Michaelis received his post in 1737 as inspector of the minerals cabinet created under Augustus the Strong . Finally, in 1739, he succeeded Tobias Beutel (the younger), who died in January of the same year, as inspector of the entire Kunstkammer, but he died at the end of the following year. This resulted in another generation change for the Kunstkammer, as had already happened between Tobias Beutel (the elder) and his nephew of the same name in 1690/1691 - Michaelis' successor Gottfried Heinrich Duckwitz headed the chamber for over three decades.

His father outlived his unmarried son by over a decade.

After Johann Gottlieb Michaelis Dresden was the south of the purchase farms in the 1990s in Nickern scale Michaelisstraße named.

Web links

• Member entry of Johann Theophil Michaelis at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina
• Portraits in the portrait index

Footnotes

1. ^ Johann Christian Poggendorff (Hrsg.): Biographical-literary concise dictionary for the history of the exact sciences . 2nd volume (M-Z). Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag , Leipzig 1863, Sp. 143 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Christoph Gottlob Grundig : From the life, merit and dying of the king. Pohln. and Churfl. Saxon. Mr. Go. Cämmerier and art cameraman, Joh. Gottlieb Michaelis, to Dreßden . In: New attempts, useful collections, to the natural and art history, especially from Upper Saxony . tape 1 . Schneeberg 1750, p. 108–119 ( digitized in the Google book search - with a different year of death 1741, but correct age of 36 ¹ ⁄ ₂   years.).
3. ^ ^{A b} Arthur Weichold: Wilhelm Gotthelf Lohrmann: Life picture of an excellent geodesist, topographer, astronomer, meteorologist and promoter of technology in science and practice in the first half of the 19th century . Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag, 1985, p. 429 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
4. ↑ Focal lens. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden , accessed on June 29, 2018 . 
5. ↑ • JDF Neigebaur : History of the imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists during the second century of its existence. Friedrich Frommann, Jena 1860, p. 214 ( digitized version ).
   • Member entry of Johann Theophil Michaelis at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on November 27, 2016.
6. ↑ Christoph Gottlob Lichtwer. In: Stadtwiki Dresden. Retrieved June 29, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Gerald Heres: Dresden Art Collections in the 18th Century . 2nd Edition. Seemann, 2006, ISBN 978-3-86502-134-2 , pp. 105 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
8. ↑ • Who was who? In: Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Kommunale Statistikstelle (Ed.): Street directory 2017: Statistical information . February 2018, p. 108 ( online as PDF ; 18.7 MB). • Michaelisstrasse. In: Stadtwiki Dresden. Retrieved July 10, 2016 .