Johann Helfrich von Müller

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Detail of the adding machine by Johann Helfrich Müller

Johann Helfrich Müller , from 1810 von Müller , (born January 16, 1746 in Kleve , † June 12, 1830 in Darmstadt ) was a German civil engineer and lieutenant colonel . Müller worked as senior construction director in Darmstadt.

He was the son of Lorenz Friedrich Müller (1715–1796), colonel of the artillery and chief construction director in Giessen, and his wife Maria Magdalena Josepha Hambloch (1726–1800). His brother was Franz von Müller , a British lieutenant colonel, both ennobled in Hesse in 1810. The journalist and writer Helfrich Peter Sturz is a cousin.

Life

Müller became known when, between 1782 and 1784, he succeeded in producing a functional 3-species calculating machine that could carry out the four basic arithmetic operations using a 14-digit arithmetic unit . The operands were preset using manual rotary dials. It was a machine based on the relay roller principle. On June 24, 1784, he demonstrated the machine at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . Von Müller used the machine to set up tables for calculating the volume of logs and wood cuts. These panels were published in Frankfurt / Main in 1788. However, no investor could be found for series production of the calculating machine. Ludwig I of Hessen-Darmstadt, however, bought the machine for 4,000 guilders.

Müller was the first in the history of mathematics who demonstrably expressed the idea of ​​having mathematical tables automatically created by a calculating machine. To do this, he planned to implement a printing machine, a differential machine . However, there was no implementation.

For his achievements he was ennobled by the Grand Duke of Hesse on June 23, 1810.

Works

Müller used his machine to check calculation tables and published his results as a book:

  • New tables, which contain the cubic content and value of the round, shod and cut timber and timber: made by means of the Müllerian calculating machine: together with instructions on how the content can be found more correctly than before

The market fountain (Darmstadt) was built according to his plans in 1780 .

family

He was married since 1781 to Johanetta Catharina Fabrice von Westerfeld (1761-1830), the daughter of Esaias Fabrice von Westerfeld auf Westerfeld (1709-1779) and Elisabeth Katharine Schröder (1724-1765). The couple had three sons and two daughters; all of them died early, with the exception of their daughter Friederike (1784–1841). She was married to Baron Ludwig von Gall (1769-1815), a major general from Hessen-Darmstadt . These are the parents of the writer Louise von Gall (1815–1855).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Font: JH Müller's Fürstl. Hessen-Darmstädt. Engineer-captain and correspondent of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen . Description of his newly invented calculating machine, according to its shape, use and benefit.
  2. ↑ Otto Titan Hefner: Studbook of the blooming and dead nobility in Germany , vol. 3, p. 74, digitized
  3. ↑ books.google.de

literature

personal data
SURNAME Müller, Johann Helfrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müller, Johann Helfrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil engineer and lieutenant colonel
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1746
PLACE OF BIRTH Kleve
DATE OF DEATH June 12, 1830
Place of death Darmstadt