Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler

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Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler

Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler (born November 1, 1751 in Görlitz , † October 16, 1795 in Leipzig ) was a German physicist and lawyer .

Life

Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler was the son of Johann Wilhelm Gehler, who was mayor of Görlitz. After his death, the 15-year-old Gehler followed his brother to Leipzig. At the University of Leipzig he acquired solid knowledge of the natural sciences and ancient languages. He heard from Johann Heinrich Winckler and Johann August Ernesti , among others . But he was particularly interested in mathematics.

Nevertheless, in 1768 he began to study law. After this study he worked as court master in 1773/1774 in the education of three young Russian noblemen and also gave private lessons. In doing so, he acquired his master’s degree in 1774 and the venia legendi of the Philosophical Faculty for mathematics in 1776 . In 1777 he obtained a doctorate from the law faculty.

In 1776 he met Maria Rahel Christiane Marschall, the daughter of the deceased Wurzen councilor Johann Christoph Marschall, whom he married in 1777. This marriage earned him considerable wealth and influential relatives. Six daughters and one son were born in the marriage.

In addition to his teaching activities in mathematics, Gehler now dealt with the translation and editing of important physical and mathematical works from English and French. In 1779 he became a member of the Upper Lusatian Society of Sciences and in 1785 the Leipzig Economic Society elected him an honorary member.

Title page of the Physical Dictionary, Volume 1

In 1783 he gave up his academic career and at the urging of Mayor Carl Wilhelm Müller became a member of the Leipzig City Council. As a councilor, he mainly performed tasks related to the supervision of craft guilds , various cash registers and the Eisleben-Mansfeld mining and steel works. In 1787 and 1793 he represented Leipzig in the Saxon state parliaments. In 1786 he was appointed as an assessor at the Leipzig Higher Court .

Gehler was also fond of the fine arts from a young age. Already during his studies he founded a “Society of Poetic Friends” with like-minded people and published a few verses in a volume “Gedichte” published by them under the pseudonym Hephestion (Hn). In 1776 he was one of the founders of the Leipzig Society of Harmony , where people gathered every week to read, talk and play. He was also a co-founder of the Gewandhaus Concerts, which emerged in 1781 from the "Great Concerts". Until 1786 he was one of the twelve honorary members of the management of the Gewandhaus concerts.

Physical dictionary

Gehler was best known for his "Physical Dictionary" (with the full title Physical Dictionary, or attempt at an explanation of the most distinguished terms and artificial words of the natural sciences, accompanied by brief reports on the history of the inventions and descriptions of tools ), the first five volumes of which he from 1787 to 1795, i.e. in addition to his administrative work, and which presented the entire physical knowledge of that time critically and reliably in alphabetical order. After his death, it was revised in the years 1825 to 1845 by Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes , Leopold Gmelin , Johann Caspar Horner , Karl Ludwig von Littrow , Georg Wilhelm Muncke and Christoph Heinrich Pfaff and published in eleven volumes (in several parts). Since physics was then used as a collective term for all natural processes, the “Physical Dictionary”, contrary to what the book title might suggest today, deals generally with scientific topics. In addition to physics in the narrower sense, astronomy and chemistry are also dealt with.

Works

  • Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler's physical dictionary . Schwickert, Leipzig. 11 volumes, 1825–1845 digitized

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler: Physical dictionary, or attempt at an explanation of the most noble concepts and artificial words of the natural science, accompanied with short messages of the history of the inventions and descriptions of the tools . tape 1 : A to Epo . Schwieckertscher Verlag, Leipzig 1787 ( full text in the Google book search).
  2. ↑ Johann Samuel Traugott Gehler: Physical dictionary, or attempt at an explanation of the most noble concepts and artificial words of the natural science, accompanied with short messages of the history of the inventions and descriptions of the tools . tape 5 : U to Z . Schwieckertscher Verlag, Leipzig 1795 ( full text in the Google book search).
  3. ^ Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes, Leopold Gmelin, Johann Caspar Horner, Georg Wilhelm Muncke, Christian Heinrich Pfaff (eds.): Johann Samuel Traugott Gehlers Physical Dictionary . tape 1 . EB Schwieckert, Leipzig 1825 ( full text in the Google book search).
  4. ^ Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes, Leopold Gmelin , Johann Caspar Horner, Karl Ludwig Littrow , Georg Wilhelm Muncke , Christian Heinrich Pfaff (eds.): Johann Samuel Traugott Gehlers Physical Dictionary . tape 11 . EB Schwieckert, Leipzig 1845 ( full text in the Google book search).
personal data
SURNAME Gehler, Johann Samuel Traugott
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1751
PLACE OF BIRTH Goerlitz
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1795
Place of death Leipzig