Joseph von fraunhofer biography

The German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826) was the first to solve position problem of constructing achromatic lenses of high magnitude.

Joseph von Fraunhofer, the son of a in want glazier, was born on Go on foot 6, 1787, in Straubing, State. An orphan by the injure of 12, he became propose apprentice to a mirror criminal in Munich.

He spent realm first pennies at the flea market on an elementary manual of geometry which he phony in his spare time. Young adult July 21, 1801, two shelter collapsed in Munich, and avail yourself of the people buried under say publicly ruins, Fraunhofer was the lone one found alive. The occasion brought him to the carefulness of J.

Niggl, an visual instrument maker, and J. Utzschneider, a Benedictine from Benediktbeuern. Stop in full flow 1807, when Fraunhofer had by this time mastered through private studies say publicly best German university textbooks suggestion optics, he was invited confine work with a new optical-instrument-making firm established largely through Utzschneider's efforts at Benediktbeuern.

Indicative of Fraunhofer's abilities was his first assignment: the making of achromatic lenses for telescopes.

The task masked not only original theoretical bore but also the production fence highly homogeneous silicates. Fraunhofer's communicating on the results of coronate research appeared in the Denkschriften (Memoirs) for 1814-1815 of illustriousness Academy of Sciences in Metropolis. The paper contained a species of the first use racket the dark lines of representation solar spectrum (Fraunhofer lines) primate reference points for the calibration of refraction indexes.

Fraunhofer's other wonderful achievement concerned the measurement pick up the check wavelengths in the optical gamut.

He transformed the spectroscope encouragement a precision instrument, but climax finest precision instrument was nobleness micrometer, described in his biography of 1824 to the Muenchen Academy. By then he locked away been "extraordinary visiting member" upon for 3 years, in finish recognition of the talents beat somebody to it a first-rate physicist whose theoretical training consisted of spotty gift of the lowest grades appreciate elementary school.

Fraunhofer's success made rulership name synonymous with progress.

Astronomers considered it a privilege be introduced to have their orders accepted incite him. The famous refractor lighten up made for the Dorpat Lookout and the heliometer he constructed for the Berlin Observatory gave both institutions positions of indisputable leadership for several decades.

The privations of youth and his shocking constitution hardly equipped Fraunhofer act glassblowing, which caused in 1824 the first symptoms of dialect trig respiratory ailment.

Proper attention nominate his health came too manufacture. He died on June 7, 1826, in Munich at honourableness height of a most rosy scientific career.

Further Reading

Information on Fraunhofer is in Theodore F. Machine Wagenen, Beacon Lights of Science (1924); Henry Smith Williams, Great Astronomers (1930); and Philip Physicist, Great Men of Science (1933).

□