Simon Stampfer

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Simon Ritter von Stampfer lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1842
Bust of Stampfers in front of the Vienna University of Technology

Knight Simon von Stampfer (born October 26, 1790 , in Windisch-Mattrai , Archdiocese of Salzburg ; † November 10, 1864 in Vienna ) was an Austrian mathematician , physicist, geodesist and inventor , and professor at the kk Polytechnic Institute , today's Vienna University of Technology . His best-known invention is that of the wheel of life , the first device for animating images into motion sequences.

Life

Youth and education

Born in Salzburg, he was the first son of home weavers Bartlmä Stampfer and Helene Schweinacher. From 1801 he attended the Matrei market school and in 1804 switched to the Franziskaner-Gymnasium in Lienz, which he attended until 1807. He then went to Salzburg, where he was allowed to attend the Lyceum and a philosophical course, but was not assessed for lack of school fees. As the best in his class, he was accepted into the group of regular students in 1810.

In 1814 he passed the teaching examination in Munich and applied there as a teacher. However, he then decided to stay in Salzburg, where he earned his living as an assistant teacher in mathematics, natural history, physics and Greek at the grammar school. He then moved to the Lyceum, where he taught elementary mathematics , physics and applied mathematics. There he was appointed professor in 1819. In his spare time, the young scholar carried out geodetic measurements, astronomical observations, experiments on the propagation speed of sound and height measurements with the help of the barometer . Stampfer was often a guest at the Kremsmünster Benedictine Abbey , which had an astronomical tower and numerous astronomical devices.

In 1822 he married Johanna Wagner , who gave birth to his first daughter ( Maria Aloysia Johanna ) in 1824 and his first son ( Anton Simon Josef ) in 1825 .

Teaching and first scientific work

After several unsuccessful applications, including in Innsbruck, Stampfer was finally appointed full professor of pure elementary mathematics at the University of Salzburg . However , when the chair for practical geometry became vacant at the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna, where he had also applied, in December 1825 he was appointed to succeed Franz Josef von Gerstner . He now taught practical geometry, but continued to work as a physicist and astronomer. Among other things, he gave a method for calculating solar eclipses .

Since he inevitably had to deal with lenses and their accuracy because of his astronomical activity , he came across the field of optical illusions . Around 1828 he therefore developed test methods for telescopes and measuring procedures to determine the radius of curvature of lenses as well as the refractive and dispersive power of glass. While working on the theoretical principles of manufacturing high-quality optics, he turned to Fraunhofer lenses .

Development of the "stroboscopic discs"

At the end of 1832, Stampfer's attention was drawn to the attempts of the British physicist Michael Faraday in the Zeitschrift für Physik und Mathematik , published in Vienna , who discovered the optical illusion caused by rapidly rotating cogwheels, the movement of which the human eye could no longer perceive, or only falsely , was so impressed that he investigated the phenomenon, carried out experiments with toothed wheels resembling toothed wheels and wrote a treatise on it. Stampfer repeated Faraday's attempts in December 1832 and rebuilt the toothed washers. From these experiments the wheel of life (also Zoetrop , Prof. Stampfers stroboscopic disks or optical magic disks ), a stroboscope or a spinner resulted in the end . This is a drum that is provided with slots. On the inside there is a rotating cylinder on which images are applied; If you turn the cylinder and look through the viewing slit, the impression of a continuous, moving image is created.

Similar developments were achieved almost simultaneously by the Belgian Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau ( Phenakistiskop ) and the British William Horner , but Stampfer received Imperial Privilege No. 1920 for his invention on May 7, 1833, which secured him from competition for two years:

"1920. S. Stampfer, professor at the kk polytechnic institute in Vienna. (Wieden, Nro. 64), and Mathias Trentsensky; to the invention of drawing figures and colored forms, in general pictures of every kind, according to mathematical and physical laws in such a way that, if they are led past the eye with due speed by some mechanism, while the light beam is constantly interrupted, the most varied optical ones Deceptions in connected movements and actions are presented to the eye, and these images are most simply drawn on sheets of cardboard or some other suitable material, on the periphery of which holes are made for looking through. If these disks are rotated quickly around their axes opposite a mirror, the animated images in the mirror appear to the eye when looking through the holes, and in this way not only machine movements of all kinds, e.g. B. wheels and hammer mills, rolling carts and rising balloons, but also the most diverse actions and movements of people and animals are surprisingly represented. Even more complex actions, e.g. B. represent theatrical scenes, workshops in operation, etc., both through transparent pictures and pictures drawn in the usual way. For two years; from May 7th. "

- Jb. Polytechn. Inst. Vol. 19, 406f.,

The device was marketed commercially by the Viennese art dealer Trentsensky & Vieweg . The first edition appeared in February 1833 and was soon sold out, so that a second, improved edition appeared in July. Not least because of the patent, Stampfer's invention was able to spread the most, so that his word creation “stroboscopic disks” ultimately also caught on outside of Austria and later gave the “ stroboscopic effect ” its name.

In the following years, Stampfer came up with various other inventions.

Later work

Another highlight of his career was the founding of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in 1847, of which he was one of the first members. A year later, Stampfer, who was increasingly suffering from hearing loss, retired , but continued his lectures until 1853.

In 1849, Stampfer was awarded “Se. Majesty awarded the Emperor the Knight's Cross of His Highest Leopold Order ”; since then his name has been Simon Ritter von Stampfer .

In 1850 two of his children died of pulmonary tuberculosis , in 1856 his wife; Stampfer died lonely on November 10, 1864 in Vienna of a stroke. In 1894 Stampfergasse in Vienna- Hietzing was named after him.

Fonts

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Simon Stampfers Stroboscopic Disc Object of the Month August 2001, accessed on 29 September 2011
personal data
SURNAME Stampfer, Simon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stampfer, Simon von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian mathematician, physicist, geodesist and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1790
PLACE OF BIRTH Windisch-Mattrai , Archdiocese of Salzburg
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1864
Place of death Vienna