Martinus van Marum
Martinus van Marum , also Martin , (born March 20, 1750 in Delft , † December 26, 1837 in Haarlem ) was a Dutch doctor , naturalist, chemist and scientist. Van Marum was the first manager of the Teylers Museum and under his supervision the largest electrostatic generator of the time was built.
Live and act
Youth and family
Martinus van Marum was born in Delft in 1750 to Petrus van Marum and Cornelia van Oudheusden. His father received his doctorate in 1736 from the University of Groningen as a surveyor, agronomist and engineer. Petrus moved to Delft and married Cornelia there in 1744. Ten years later he bought the porcelain manufacturer De Romein (the Roman) in Delft and worked there as a master distiller. Martinus attended the Latin school in Delft . In 1764 De Romein was sold and the family moved back to Groningen .
Groningen
From 1764 Martinus van Marum studied at the University of Groningen, in particular physiology and philosophy . Under his teacher Petrus Camper he was particularly interested in botany . He obtained his doctorate in 1773. phil. with a dissertation on plant movements and their sap flows. Governor Wilhelm V was also present during the doctorate . Later that year, Van Marum also received his doctorate in medicine.
In 1773 Camper resigned as professor of botany. After the university passed van Marum over and instead appointed Wynoldus Munniks professor, van Marum turned his back on botany and devoted himself to electrostatics. Together with his friend, the instrument maker Gerhard Kuyper , van Marum built an electrostatic generator that can work in a vacuum . They publish the results in 1776 in “Verhandeling over het electrizeeren” (Treatise on electrification).
Doctor and scientist
From 1776 to 1780 he was a doctor in Haarlem. Although he could earn more in another city, he chose Haarlem for the city's intellectual life and societies. In addition to being a doctor, Van Marum held physics and mathematics lectures and designed instruments to demonstrate physical theories. He became a member of the Dutch Society of Sciences and in 1777 by Pieter Teyler van der Hulst († 1778) appointed director of their cabinet of curiosities, which included a collection of stuffed animals .
Van Marum's interest in science, and in particular in gases, became evident in 1778 at the latest when he won the first competition of the Teylers Tweede Genootschap (Teylers Second Society) with a gold medal. The title of his treatise was "Gephlogisteerde en gedephlogisteerde luchten" , where he described his results and explained that there is no change in volume with an electrical discharge in a closed amount of atmospheric air. This was related to the controversy over the doctrine of phlogiston ( dephlogized air was Joseph Priestley's name for oxygen at the time) and Van Marum visited Antoine de Lavoisier in Paris in 1784/85 , then corresponded with him and was one of the first foreign followers from 1787 his new chemistry (called anti-inflammatory chemistry). The following year Van Marum became a member of the Society as the successor to Cornelis Elout (with only six members). From 1804 until his death he was chairman himself.
family
In 1782 he married Joanna Bosch (1739-1821), the rich and only daughter of Jan Bosch (1713-1780) and Catharine Blauuwduyf. Van Marum knew her from his position as family doctor for the Bosch family. The marriage remained childless and in 1821 Joanna died. Eight years after Joanna's death, his housekeeper Josina Keer gave birth to an illegitimate child who she named Martinus.
Managing Director Teylers Museum
In 1784 Van Marum was appointed first manager of a new department of Teylers Stichting : Teyler's Physisch en Naturaliën Kabinetten en Bibliotheek (Teyler's Kabinetten der Physik und Naturalien und Bibliothek). The Teylers Museum in Haarlem was founded under his leadership .
John Cuthbertson constructed the largest electric machine of the time for his experiments to uncover the secrets of electricity. Marum based it on Benjamin Franklin . However, the high tensions prevented new knowledge. During his experiments he noticed a pungent smell (of ozone ). The electrifier became a crowd favorite at the Teylers Museum . Furthermore, Marum dealt with lightning rods , plant breeding , the production of cheaper food for the poor, with the problems of air pollution and the ventilation of factory buildings. Van Marum also produced many physical and scientific instruments for others. King George II of Great Britain ordered many instruments from him.
Van Marum was also interested in paleontology , mineralogy and geology . So he acquired a skeleton of a Mosasaurus that had been found in Limburg and which he secured for Teylers Museum. In 1803 Van Marum turned back to botany. This was mainly due to a dispute with Adriaan van Zeebergh , one of the five directors of the Teylers Stichting. Van Zeebergh had managed to get the Teylers Stichting to spend more on charity and less on scientific collections. Van Marum worked intensively on the breeding of mostly exotic plants in his country house "Plantlust" on the Spaarne .
recognition
In 1783 Van Marum was appointed a corresponding member of the renowned French Académie des Sciences , in 1789 a member of the British Royal Society and the Palatinate Academy of Sciences in Mannheim . From 1790 to 1808 he was a member of the Nederlandse Vereniging van Chemici (Dutch Association of Chemists) and from 1794 until his death Van Marum was the successor of Christianus van der Aa (1718–1793) secretary of the Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (Dutch society of Sciences). With his tact and connections, he ran the Haarlem collections without harm from revolutions and the French Republic. When the monarchy was restored from 1814 to 1816, he participated in the establishment of the Koninklijk Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schonen Kunsten , a forerunner of today's Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen . In 1820 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .
Works
- Description d'une très-grande machine électrique, placée dans le muséum de Teyler à Harlem, et des expériences faites par le moyen de cette machine . 1785
- Op te geeven the best toestel van den electrophore . 1783
- Experiences concernant quelques météores électrique . 1787 in the Journal de physique
- Sur la cause de l'électricité des substances fondues et refroidies . 1788 with Adriaan Paets van Troostwyk (1752–1837) in the Journal de physique
- Description of the electric frottoirs d'une nouveau construction . 1791
- Lettre à Mr. Volta concernant des expériences sur la column électrique faites par lui et le prof. Pfaff, dans le laboratoire de Teyler . 1801
Web links
- Marum, Martinus van (short biography). In: Electrifying machines in the 18th and 19th centuries - A small encyclopedia. Martin Schneider, Chair for the History of Science, University of Regensburg, 2004, archived from the original on August 19, 2007 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Claude Viel, Le salon et le laboratoire de Lavoisier à l'Arsenal, cénacle où s'élabora la nouvelle chimie, Revue d'Histoire de la Pharmacie, Volume 306, 1995, p. 257, online at Persee
- ^ Wikisource: John Cuthbertson
- ↑ Acta Academiae Theodoro-Palatinae , Vol. 7 1794, p. 2
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Marum, Martinus van |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch doctor, naturalist, chemist and scientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 20, 1750 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Delft |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 26, 1837 |
| Place of death | Haarlem |