Kristian Birkeland

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Kristian Birkeland (before 1900)

Kristian Olaf Bernhard Birkeland (born December 13, 1867 in Kristiania ; † June 15, 1917 in Tokyo ) was a Norwegian physicist who held a chair at the then Royal Friedrichs University Kristiania (since 1939 University of Oslo ) from 1898 . He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics seven times without receiving the coveted award.

Life

Kristian Birkeland was the second child of Reinert Birkeland (1838–1899) and his wife Ingeborg, née Ege (1842–1913). After completing school in his hometown Kristiania (now Oslo ), he began studying chemistry , mathematics and physics at the university there . Between 1893 and 1895 he continued his academic training in Germany , France (where he studied with Henri Poincaré ) and Switzerland . After returning to Norway in 1896, he became the youngest member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences .

Birkeland doing the Terrella experiment

Birkeland dealt intensively with the aurora borealis from the mid-1890s . He assumed that electrons from the sun stimulate the gas mixture in the upper atmosphere to glow. However, since the existence of the solar wind was not yet known at the time, its theory has been questioned. In February 1897, Birkeland drove to the far north of Norway for the first time and was almost killed in a snow storm . By 1899 he set up a northern lights observatory on Mount Haldde near Alta . In the winter of 1902/1903 he finally operated a network of four stations. Besides Haldde there were observatories on Iceland , Novaya Zemlya and to Spitsbergen belonging island Akseloya . In addition, he carried out laboratory experiments on a spherical magnet as a model of the earth, called Terrella. He succeeded in artificially creating light phenomena similar to the northern lights.

In 1903, together with Sam Eyde , he developed the Birkeland-Eyde process for the production of artificial saltpeter and fertilizer salt. The nitrogen is oxidized from the air with the help of an electric arc . Together they founded the company Norsk Hydro in 1905 , which generated the large amounts of electricity required for the process from hydropower. The stake in the company made Birkeland wealthy.

From 1910 onwards, Birkeland's scientific activities decreased significantly, possibly as a result of mercury poisoning , which he contracted in connection with the Terrella experiments. Research trips nevertheless brought him to Jordan , Japan , India and above all to Egypt , where he lived between 1914 and 1917 and operated his own observatory .

Birkeland filed for 59 patents, including an electromagnetic cannon , which failed spectacularly due to a short circuit during a public demonstration to potential customers (even if the projectile hit correctly). He wanted to use the funds from the sale to finance his aurora borealis expeditions and experiments.

Most of his scientific papers were written in French. The Technical University of Dresden made him an honorary doctorate in 1908 .

Birkeland died in 1917, presumably from an overdose of veronal in combination with alcohol.

He had been married to Ida Charlotte Hammer since 1905, but they divorced in 1911 and remained childless. The mathematician Richard Birkeland was his cousin.

Honors

Birkeland is depicted on the Norwegian Bank's 200 kroner notes that were in circulation from 1994 to 2017. The asteroid (16674) Birkeland and a crater on the back of the moon were named after him.

literature

  • Alv Egeland: Kristian Birkeland. The First Space Scientist (PDF; 401; kB). In: Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics . Volume 71, 2009, pp. 1749-1755 (English).
  • Alv Egeland: Birkeland's electromagnetic gun: a historical review , IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Volume 17, April 1989, pp. 73-82. doi : 10.1109 / 27.24611
  • A. Egeland, E. Leer: Professor Kr. Birkeland: His Life and Work , IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Volume 14, December 1986, pp. 666-677. doi : 10.1109 / TPS.1986.4316617
  • Alv Egeland, William J. Burke: Kristian Birkeland. The First Space Scientist , Dordrecht: Springer, 2005. ISBN 1402032935
  • Lucy Jago: The northern lights . Knopf, 2001, ISBN 978-0-375-42028-3 (English, limited preview in Google book search).
  • Kristian Birkeland: The Norwegian aurora polaris Expedition 1902–1903 , 2 volumes, Aschehoug, Christiania 1908, 1913 ( volume 1 )

Web links

Commons : Kristian Birkeland  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Trygve Holtebekk: Kristian Birkeland . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon
  2. ↑ 16674 Birkeland @ jpl.nasa.gov, accessed September 12, 2011
  3. ↑ Birkeland the-moon; Birkeland (lunar crater) en.wikipedia


personal data
SURNAME Birkeland, Kristian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Birkeland, Kristian Olaf Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian physicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Kristiania
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1917
Place of death Tokyo