Johann Ludwig Tiarks

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johann Ludwig Tiarks (born May 10, 1789 in Waddewarden , † May 1, 1837 in Jever ) was a German astronomer who was mostly in British service throughout his life.

Life

His parents were the preacher Johann Gerhard Tiarks (* June 30, 1761; † January 7, 1813) and his wife Christine Dorothea Ehrentraut (February 14, 1762 - December 17, 1838). Tiarks was born in Waddewarden, attended the Mariengymnasium Jever and studied from 1806 at the Georg-August University in Göttingen first theology , from Michaelis 1807 mathematics , physics and mineralogy . Bernhard Friedrich Thibaut , Karl Ludwig Harding , Friedrich Stromeyer and Carl Friedrich Gauß were among his teachers. Since the father fell ill from 1807, Tiarks had to forego an academic career for financial reasons. After his doctorate as Dr. phil. In December 1808 he was therefore from 1810 initially worked as a private tutor in Hamburg through Gauß's mediation .

When Hamburg, like his homeland East Friesland, was incorporated into the territory of the French Empire as the Hanseatic Department during the French era in 1811 , he went to London to escape French military service on the continent. Here he was initially again active as a tutor. However, he soon got a job as sub-librarian of the Royal Society under the chairmanship of the British circumnavigator Joseph Banks , who promoted him and proposed the government for public contracts. He worked for Banks until 1816, after which Tiarks worked as a librarian at the British Museum and at the same time as an astronomer for the British-American Borders Commission, which determined the exact course of the border between the British colony of Canada and the United States as agreed in the Peace of Ghent in December 1814 States of North America should set. During a stay in North America in 1817, he determined the 45th parallel from the Saint Regis River on the Saint Lawrence River to Lake Champlain and the Connecticut River as well as the main watersheds south of the St. Lawrence, i.e. in what is now the Canadian areas of the loyalists such as the Estrie on the one hand and in what is now New England on the other. Tiarks carried out further measurements in North America and Canada in 1820. He explored the source of Connecticut and stayed in New York and England in 1821 to publish the results of his research. From 1822 he worked again for the British government, this time for the Board of Longitude , and measured the eastern Atlantic and the English Channel on board the frigate HMS Owen Glandower to determine the longitude between Greenwich and Madeira . In 1824 he accompanied Sir Humphry Davy on the steamboat Komet to the North Sea and the Kattegat in order to combine the English length regulations with those of the Hanoverian-Danish degree measurement. In 1825 he determined the northwesternmost point on Lake of the Woods (see also Northwest Angle ). As an advisor to King William I of the Netherlands , who was appointed as arbitrator , he was again active in 1830 in the border disputes that were still open between the United Kingdom and the USA as a result of the British-American War . From 1831 he lived again in Jever, where he was put on waiting allowance and took on various honorary positions. Among other things, he checked and corrected the profitability calculations of the Oldenburg widows and orphans' fund.

He was admitted to the Royal Society as a Fellow in 1825 . His scientific legacy, consisting of numerous articles for English journals and several books on his length determinations carried out for the Admiralty , was for a long time in the library of the Tiarks family in Foxbury , Chislehurst , Kent , but in 1972 it was essentially transferred to the Canadian State Archives ( Library and Archives Canada ). His work on the American-Canadian border issues was printed by the government in 1831 in five volumes for internal official use, but did not reach the book trade.

family

In 1822 he married Auguste Antoinette Sophie Toel (1792–1836), the daughter of the medical councilor Luderus Toel (1754–1806) from Jever. Of their children, only the daughter Luise Antoinette survived (* June 24, 1831, † June 1, 1904). She later married the Munich doctor and professor Heinrich Israel von Ranke (* May 8, 1830, † May 13, 1909). The writer and poet Robert Graves (1895–1985) became his great-grandson.

Works

  • Tables for easely determining the arbitration of exchanges between London and the principal commercial towns of Europe. London 1817.
  • Report on the chronometrical observations made in the months of July and August 1822 with a view to ascertain the longitude of the island of Madeira. London 1822.
  • Report on the chronometrical observations made in the months of July, August and September 1823 with a view to ascertain the differences of longitudes between Dover and Falmouth and Portsmouth and Falmouth. London 1823.
  • A short account of some observations made with chronometers in two expeditions sent out by the Admiralty at the recommendation of the Board of Longitude for ascertaining the longitude of Madeira and of Falmouth. London 1824.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Public Archives Canada: Johann Ludwig Tiarks Fund  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / collectionscanada.gc.ca  

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tiarks, Johann Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tiarks, John Lewis; Tiarks, John Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Waddewarden
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1837
Place of death Jever