Paul Traugott Meißner

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Paul Traugott Meißner, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1845

Paul Traugott Meißner (born March 23, 1778 in Mediasch , Transylvania , † July 9, 1864 in Neuwaldegg , today part of the Vienna-Hernals district ) was an Austrian chemist and inventor.

Live and act

As the son of the town surgeon in his place of birth, who died early, Meißner began an apprenticeship as a pharmacist in 1793, in which he expressed a great desire to perform chemical operations . With the aim of devoting himself entirely to studying chemistry, he went to Vienna , where he attended the lectures by Joseph Franz von Jacquin in the academic year 1797/98 - and was encouraged to embark on a scientific career. After studying at the University of Vienna for some time , Meissner went on a trip through Germany, which he did mostly on foot when he was in need of money. On this hike, Meißner came to Aussee in Styria , where he entered the pharmacy of the kk Salzoberamt as a provisional . After two years he returned to Medias at the request of his stepfather. On the way home, he graduated from the University of Pest , the diploma as Master of Pharmacy . When he arrived in Transylvania, he took over the management of a pharmacy in Kronstadt .

After his marriage, Meißner moved to Vienna in 1815, where he was appointed as adjunct and then professor of technical chemistry at the newly established kk polytechnic institute by Emperor Franz I (at the request of Andreas Joseph Stifft ) in 1816, who remained autodidact as a chemist .

Over the years Meißner, although highly respected, developed idiosyncratic theories about heat, light and electricity, which his students can reproduce, which isolated him from the relevant scientific (and medical) world outside of Austria. In contrast to methodical-practical work, Meißner preferred (unmethodically) a direct and intimate connection with practice as well as intensive cultivation of theoretical speculations , which he increasingly emphasized.

When Justus Liebig attributed the poor state of Austria's chemistry and its teaching by name (as exemplified) to Meißner in 1838 , this sealed his retirement from teaching, which was finally foreseeable in 1843. While Meissner had in 1844 a rebuttal to Liebig Article written, however, on 6 February 1845 before the end of the academic year, he had the lecture activities in favor of 1843 at the Polytechnic Institute as a professor of special technical chemistry used Anton Schrötter passed - what tumultuous protests on the side of the students who paid homage to Meissner. In the last years of his professorship, Meißner had advocated the establishment of a chair for analytical chemistry: his initiative was crowned with success when in November 1843 Josef Benedikt Freiherr von Pasqualati (* March  15, 1802 ; † after 1870) became associate professor of the analytical chemistry was appointed.

An essential, permanently recognized part of Meissner's work were his technical inventions. Among other things, he developed a central heating system named after him with warm air, made attempts to heat and ventilate steam ships such as railway wagons, and also developed the so-called “Viennese economy stove”. Meißner had the opportunity to equip the Vienna General Hospital , many military hospitals, parts of the Vienna Hofburg and, in 1855, the kk polytechnic institute with its air heating. In 1900 he found recognition at the Paris World Exhibition .

Paul Traugott Meißner had a son, the technician Karl Ludwig Ritter von Meißner , and three daughters, one of whom married the evangelical superintendent Andreas von Gunesch , one the mathematician Adam Freiherr von Burg and one the doctor Karl Sigmund von Illanor .

In 1910, Meißnergasse in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after him.

Writings, works

  • Proposals for some new improvements in pharmaceutical operations and associated apparatus, based on experience. etc . Kupffer and Wimmer, Vienna 1814.
  • The Hydrometer in its application to chemistry and technology . Two volumes. Mechitarists, Vienna 1816.
  • Handbook of general and technical chemistry, designed for self-teaching, and as the basis for regular and extraordinary lectures . Five volumes, ten departments. Gerold, Vienna 1819–1833.
    • Volume 1: System of Chemistry. Chemical apparatus. Tabular overview of the undecomposed substances and their compounds . 1819. - Full text online .
    • Volume 2: Chemistry of non-metallic substances . 1820. - Full text online .
    • Volume 3: Chemistry of Metalloids . 1821. - Full text online .
    • Volume 4.1: Chemistry of acidic metals . 1822. - Full text online .
    • Volume 4.2 / 3: Chemistry of Oxide-Forming Metals . 1824. - Full text online .
    • Volume 5.1: Chemistry of the closer components of organic residues (Azotfreye organic substances) . 1827. - Full text online .
    • Volume 5.2: Chemistry of the closer components of organic residues (organic substances containing azo) . 1829. - Full text online .
    • Volume 5.3: Chemistry of the closer components of organic residues. (Substances of concern that have not yet been investigated in more detail) . 1831. - Full text online .
    • Volume 5.3.1: Chemistry of the closer components of organic residues. (Substances of concern that have not yet been investigated in more detail) . 1833. - Full text online .
  • Heating with warmed air, invented, systematically worked on and as the cheapest, most comfortable, most beneficial to health, and at the same time the most effective means of removing the risk of fire for warming buildings of all kinds . Second, increased, expanded edition. Gerold, Vienna 1823. - Full text online .
    • Third, very enlarged and completely revised edition. Gerold, Vienna 1827. - Full text online .
  • System of medicine, inferred from the most general laws of nature . Gerold, Vienna 1832.
  • Chemical equivalents or theory of atoms. For use by chemists, pharmacists and technicians . Two volumes. Mösle, Vienna 1834.
  • New system of chemistry. As a guideline for a regular study of this science, in addition to an appendix containing an alphabetically arranged repertory of the latest discoveries and advances in chemistry . Three volumes. Mösle (& Braumüller), Vienna 1835–1838.
  • The system of complete air renewal by Dr. F [ranz] X [aver] v. Häberl and Dr. A [nselm] Martin, compared with the heating by heated air by P. T. Meissner . In: Ms. A. K .: heating and ventilation. About Haeberl's air renewal and Meissner's heating with warmed air . Verlagsbuero, Leipzig 1847, pp. 59–119. - Full text online .
  • The old schoolmaster's glosses on the new constitutional experiments. Final epistle to his former pupils . Tendler, Vienna 1848. - Full text online .
  • Over heating and ventilation of railway wagons and other outpatient closed spaces are known as da: etc steam and sailing ships . In: Amédée Demarteau (Red.): Journal of the Austrian engineering association . Issue 13.1850 (2nd year), ZDB -ID 2534635-0 . Seidel, Vienna 1850, p. 97 f. - Text online (PDF; 2.4 MB) .
  • Instruction about the treatment of my heating and ventilation apparatus in the railroad cars of the outpatient post offices . In: Amédée Demarteau (Red.): Journal of the Austrian engineering association . Issue 17.1850 (2nd year), ZDB-ID 2534635-0. In it: Notes and intelligence sheet of the Austrian engineering association . Issue 9.1850. Seidel, Vienna 1850, p. 58. - Text online (PDF; 2.9 MB) .
  • About heating and ventilation of the railway carriages and other ambulant locked rooms, as there are: steam and sailing ships etc. according to Prof. Meißner's system . In: Eduard Schmidl (Red.): Journal of the Austrian Engineering Association . Issues 17 / 18.1852 (Volume IV), ZDB-ID 2534635-0. Seidel, Vienna 1852, pp. 178–194. - Text online (PDF; 3.0 MB) .
  • The ventilation and warming of the nursery and the sickroom, with consideration of the fire management in small households and the saving stove. Dedicated to maternal love . Förster, Vienna 1852. - Full text online .
  • Engelbert Matzenauer, -: spontaneous generation ( Generatio aequivoca ) by condensing electrical dissolution from Professor Paul T. Meissner's theory of heat . Self-published (Czernak in commission), Vienna 1865. - Full text online .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ PT Meissner . (Nekrolog), p. 1109 f.
  2. ↑ PT Meissner . (Nekrolog), p. 1110.
  3. ^ Bauer (, Loschmidt): Feuilleton. In memory of Paul Traugott Meißner , p. 3.
  4. ^ The state of chemistry in Austria . In: Justus Liebig (Ed.): Annalen der Pharmacie . Volume 25.1838, ZDB -ID 2401424-2 . Winter, Heidelberg 1838, pp. 339–347. - text online .
  5. ↑ Justus Liebig, Dr. of Medicine and Philosophy, Professor of Chemistry at the Ludwig University of Gießen (...) analyzed by P. T. Meißner . Sauerländer, Frankfurt am Main 1844. - Full text online .
  6. ↑ Pasqualati, Joseph Freiherr . In: Constant von Wurzbach: Biographical Lexicon of the Kaiserthums Oesterreich . Volume 21: O'Donnell - Perényi . kk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1870, p. 319.
  7. ^ Bauer (, Loschmidt): Feuilleton. In memory of Paul Traugott Meißner , p. 5.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Actually professor for special technical chemistry , since in November 1817 Benjamin Scholz (1786–1833) was appointed professor for general technical chemistry , a discipline that was originally supposed to be taught by the head of the house, Johann Joseph Prechtl . - See: Bauer (, Loschmidt): Feuilleton. In memory of Paul Traugott Meißner , p. 5.
personal data
SURNAME Meißner, Paul Traugott
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian chemist and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1778
PLACE OF BIRTH Medias
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1864
Place of death Neuwaldegg