Rudolf Wolf (astronomer)

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Johann Rudolf Wolf

Johann Rudolf Wolf (born July 7, 1816 in Fällanden near Zurich ; † December 6, 1893 in Zurich) was a Swiss astronomer and mathematician . He is considered a pioneer of astronomy in Switzerland and was the first director of the Swiss Federal Observatory, which he founded, from 1864 to 1893 .

Life

Wolf, the son of a reformed pastor, studied physics and astronomy at the University of Zurich , in Vienna, Berlin and Paris from 1833 . After completing his studies, Wolf became a mathematics and physics teacher at the secondary school in Bern in 1839 , private lecturer in 1844 and chairman of the observatory in Bern in 1847 and associate professor at the University of Bern in 1853. In 1855 he went to the upper grammar school in Zurich to teach mathematics (which he was until 1861) and was there at the same time professor of astronomy at the Polytechnic (today's ETH Zurich ) and at the University of Zurich. He also headed the library at ETH Zurich . He held these positions until his death.

An important scientific contribution has been the precise determination of the period of about 11 years within which the number of sunspots fluctuates. In 1849 he developed a method by which sunspot activity can be recorded. According to him, this measure of the relative frequency of sunspots is also referred to as Wolf's relative number . In 1832 he had already established a connection between the daily fluctuation in the movement of magnetic needles and the number of sunspots. In 1852, he and others independently established that the cycle of sunspot activity coincides with that of the Earth's magnetic field . The Zurich sunspot observation series founded by him are considered the oldest such series of measurements that have been carried out continuously up to the present day. Wolf made his extensive aurora data available to his friend Hermann Fritz , which served as the basis for his "Directory of Observed Northern Lights". The parallelism of solar, geomagnetic and aurora activity was derived from these compilations.

He was also a science historian, published books on the history of astronomy and biographies on the cultural history of Switzerland in four volumes, which he supplemented with numerous articles in magazines. Wolf was a very prolific specialist writer. His history of surveying in Switzerland is still cited today . From 1861 to 1893 he was President of the Geodetic Commission of Switzerland and was involved in a new precision survey of Switzerland. He was also a pioneer in meteorology in Switzerland and has been a member of the Swiss Meteorological Commission since it was founded in 1861, and was its president and first director of the Swiss Central Meteorological Institute from 1866 to 1881.

In 1850 he carried out extensive series of measurements on Buffon's needle problem .

For 38 years, from 1856 to 1893, Wolf was the editor of the quarterly journal of the Natural Research Society in Zurich . Before that he published the communications of the Natural Research Society in Bern from 1843 to 1855 . From 1841 to 1854 he was secretary of the Natural Research Society in Bern.

Honors

In 1864 he became a member of the Royal Astronomical Society in London and in 1885 a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences . The Natural Research Society of Emden named Johann Rudolf Wolf a corresponding honorary member in 1870. In 1852 he received an honorary doctorate in Bern.

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literature

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wilfried Schröder: The phenomenon of polar light , Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt, 1984.
  2. ^ List of former members since 1666: Letter W. Académie des sciences, accessed on March 16, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Wolf, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolf, Johann Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss astronomer and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Fällanden near Zurich
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1893
Place of death Zurich