Wilhelm von Kesslitz

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Wilhelm von Kesslitz , born as Johann Wilhelm Moritz Kesslitz (born May 26, 1862 in Neutitschein ( Nový Jičín ), Moravia ; † March 4, 1944 in Graz ), was an Austrian naval officer, geophysicist and hydrologist who was ennobled in 1908 .

Life

Wilhelm, son of the naval officer Josef Kesslitz and his wife Julia born. Donner, entered the Naval Academy Fiume after completing his school days and left it in 1880 after successfully completing his studies as a midshipman . In 1881/82 he took part in a one-year trip abroad to North and South America, the West Indies and England on the smooth deck screw corvette SMS Fasana .

He then served from 1882 to 1894 at the Hydrographic Office of the Imperial and Royal Navy in Pola . During this time he participated in the research trip of the Albatros from September 1887 to October 1888 to South America and West Africa and later his three semesters of study of geomagnetism and practical astronomy at the University of Vienna from 1891 to 1893. In 1884 he became a liner and ensign Promoted to lieutenant of the line in 1891 . In 1894/95 he took part in a geological expedition across India to Australia and Polynesia on the Fasana .

In 1895 he was transferred to the geophysics department of the Hydrographic Office, which was created on his initiative, where he worked until 1914. In 1903 he was promoted to corvette captain , initially provisionally (as deputy) and then finally appointed its head. In this position, Kesslitz was promoted to frigate captain in May 1907 and ship of the line in 1912 , and in 1908 he was promoted to the nobility.

In 1914 Kesslitz became director of the Hydrographic Office. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1917, and although he normally should have retired that year, he remained in service until the end of the war in 1918.

During his 35 years at the Hydrographic Office, Kesslitz made a special contribution to researching geomagnetism. In 1893 he carried out pendulum observations at the Military Geographic Institute , in 1889 the magnetic surveys of Dalmatia , in 1890 the Istria and the east coast of Italy and in 1893, on behalf of the Austrian Academy of Sciences , surveys of Bosnia and Herzegovina . In 1907 he made the magnetic declination determinations in Dalmatia. In the Hydrographic Office he created a weather map file, which was supposed to offer the possibility of improving the weather forecast and which was later often imitated. Kesslitz has received numerous awards and recognized internationally at an early stage.

In the interwar years he carried out hydrological and meteorological work for the Steirische Wasserkraft- und Elektrizitäts-AG, founded in 1921, and set up equations for predicting the runoff of the Austrian Alpine rivers. From 1940, when he was still old, he carried out hydrological calculations for Alpine streams for Alpen-Elektrowerke (AEW).

Honors

  • Kesslitz, his brother Rainer (* 1860, † 1928) and his sister Maria (* 1866, † 1927) were raised to the nobility in 1908.
  • In 1911 Kesslitz was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown .

Works (selection)

Footnotes

  1. ↑ midshipman was in kukKriegsmarine Austria-Hungary the lower of the two cadet ranks. The higher rank was the sea ​​ensign .
  2. ↑ The department was officially established on January 1, 1896.

Web links

literature

  • Austrian Academy of Sciences (Ed.): Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815-1950, III. Volume (Hüb-Knoll) , (Lfg. 14, 1964), p. 311
personal data
SURNAME Kesslitz, Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kesslitz, Wilhelm; Kesslitz, Johann Wilhelm Moritz; Kesslitz, Johann Wilhelm Moritz von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian rear admiral, geophysicist and hydrologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Neutitschein
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1944
Place of death Graz