Maurits Snellen

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Maurits Snellen
First International Polar Year 1882/1883: the Dutch station on the icy Kara Sea

Maurits Snellen (born April 1, 1840 in Zeist , Utrecht province , Netherlands ; † October 20, 1907 in Apeldoorn , Gelderland province , Netherlands) was a Dutch meteorologist .

He was born in 1840 as the son of the landowner George Govert Snellen and his wife Johanna Messchaert. Snellen studied at the University of Leiden and received his doctorate with a thesis on the optical properties of metals . In 1864 he became a teacher at the grammar school in Groningen and in 1867 at the high school ( Hogereburgerschool ) in Delft . In 1872 Snellen became assistant to Christoph Buys Ballot in Utrecht . From 1877 he headed the department for weather observations at the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI), after having carried out geomagnetic measurements for it.

In 1882/1883 Snellen led the Dutch expedition to set up a research station as part of the First International Polar Year . Due to difficult ice conditions in the Kara Sea , it was unable to reach its intended station in Dikson at the mouth of the Yenisei in Siberia . The station was then built on the pack ice and carried out the planned meteorological observations. However, geomagnetic measurements had to be dispensed with. The expedition ship Varna was abandoned in 1883. The participants in the expedition were able to save themselves in August 1883 after a 24-day march across the ice to the island of Waigatsch , where they were discovered by several ships.

After Buys-Ballot's death, Maurits Snellen became director of the KNMI in 1891. Under his direction, the institute was moved from the Sonnenborgh observatory in Utrecht to its current location in De Bilt in 1897 . In 1902 he resigned as director and took over the management of the newly created department for geomagnetism and seismology .

Works (selection)

  • Over de optic Eigenschappen the metal. Dissertation, Leiden 1865.
  • De Nederlandsche Pool-Expeditie 1882–83. Bosch, Utrecht 1886 ( archive.org ).
  • Beknopt divorced overzicht van de beoefening the meteorology in het algemeen en van die in Nederland in het bijzonder. Boekhoven, Utrecht 1897.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Snellen, Maurits
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch meteorologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Zeist , Utrecht Province , The Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1907
Place of death Apeldoorn , Gelderland Province , The Netherlands