Pieter van Musschenbroek

Pieter van Musschenbroek

Pieter (also Petrus) van Musschenbroek [ mʌsxənˈbɾuk ], (born March 14, 1692 in Leiden ; † September 19, 1761 ibid) was a Dutch physician and scientist.

Life

As the son of the instrument maker Johann Joosten van Musschenbroek (1660–1707), famous for his microscopes, telescopes and air pumps , Pieter came into contact with technology and science from childhood. After graduating from Latin school in 1708, he began studying medicine at the University of Leiden and received his doctorate in 1714 under the philosopher, physicist and mathematician Willem Jacob 's Gravesande . He then went to England, where he was particularly impressed by the lectures of the natural philosopher John Theophilus Desaguliers and Isaac Newtons .

From 1719 to 1723 he taught mathematics , philosophy and medicine at the University of Duisburg . During this time he developed a close correspondence with Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit , who became known through his physical instruments .

In 1723 van Musschenbroek took over a professorship at the University of Utrecht , which he also headed as rector of the Alma Mater in 1729/30 . In 1734 he was made a Fellow of the English Royal Society (FRS) and a corresponding member of the French Académie des Sciences .

In 1739 he returned to Leiden and took over from his academic teacher 's Gravesande. In 1754 he received an honorary professorship at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg , but he remained associated with the Leiden University until his death in 1761. Here he also took part in the organizational tasks of the educational institution and was rector of the university in 1743/44 .

On July 16, 1724 van Musschenbroek married Adriana van de Water (1694-1732), a daughter of Willem and Maria Ouzeel. The two children Maria (1725–1767) and Jan Willem van Musschenbroek (1729–1807) come from this connection. After the death of his wife in 1738 he entered into a second marriage with Helena Alstorphius (1692–1760), in whose grave he was also buried.

Researches

Contemporary depiction of Cunaeus working with the Leyden bottle

Pieter van Musschenbroek dealt mainly with problems of electricity and capillarity , emphasizing empirical evidence . At the same time he played an important role in spreading Newtonian views in physics. His meteorological measurements between 1725 and 1740 are also known.

He invented a number of scientific instruments, including a tribometer for measuring friction and wear, an atmometer (evaporation meter) and a pyrometer for non-contact temperature measurement. The Leiden bottle , a historic design of the electrical capacitor that he developed with Petrus Cunaeus , became particularly famous . This is also known as the Kleist bottle because it was invented by Ewald Georg von Kleist shortly before .

Among his numerous writings, the Elementa Physicæ (1726) are considered to be particularly influential.

Works

Title page of the Elementa Physicæ

• Elementa Physicæ Conscripta in usus Academicos (1726, Leiden 1745 ( online ), translated into French in 1769 (3rd vol.))
• Physicae experimentales, et geometricae, de magnete, tuborum capillarium vitreorumque speculorum attractione magnitudine terrae, cohaerentia corporum firmorum dissertationes ut et ephemerides meteorologicae Ultrajectinae. (1729)
• Tentamina Experimentorum Naturalium Captorum In Academia Del Cimento Quibus Commentarios, Nova Experimenta, Et Orationem De Methodo Instituendi Experimenta Physica Addidit (1731)
• Beginsels der Natuurkunde, Beschreeven ten dienste der Landgenooten, door Petrus van Musschenbroek, Waar by gevoegd is eene beschryving Der nieuwe en onlangs uitgevonden Luchtpompen, met haar gebruik tot veel proefnemingen ( 1736/1739 )
• De Aeris praestantia in humoribus corporis humani (1739)
• Oratio de Sapientia Divina. Leiden 1744
• Institutiones physicae Leiden 1748 ( online ),
• Dissertatio physica experimentalis de magnets. Leiden 1754, ( online )
• Compendium physicae experimentalis (1762)
• Institutiones logicae (1764)

literature

• Abraham Jacob van der Aa : Biographical Woordenboek der Nederlanden. Verlag JJ van Brederode, Haarlem, 1869, vol. 12, part 2, p. 531, ( online , Dutch)
• Friedrich Albert Meyer: Petrus van Musschenbroek, Werden und Werk and his relationships with Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit; Brush strokes to the character image of a great Duisburg university lecturer. In: Duisburger Forschungen, Volume 5, Duisburg-Ruhrort 1961, pp. 1-51.
• Jan Jozef Maria Hubert Verzijl: MUSSCHENBROECK (Petrus van) . In: Petrus Johannes Blok , Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen (Ed.): Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek . Part 10. N. Israel, Amsterdam 1974, Sp. 659–660 (Dutch, knaw.nl / dbnl.org - first edition: AW Sijthoff, Leiden 1937, reprinted unchanged).
• Karl-Eugen Kurrer : The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium , Ernst & Sohn 2018, p. 400ff and p. 1037 (biography), ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9 .

Web links

• Musschenbroek at KNAW
• Entry for Musschenbroek, Pieter van (1692 - 1761) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London