Adam Prazmowski

Adam Józef Ignacy Prażmowski ( born March 15, 1821 in Warsaw, † February 5, 1885 in Paris) was the first Polish astrophysicist and most important Polish astronomer of the 19th century. After his emigration he exhibited in Paris ago precision optical instruments.

Life

Warsaw

Adam Prażmowski comes from a Polish magnate family. He was born in Warsaw, the son of Appeal judge Józef Prażmowski and his wife Teresa Gaszyńska. His uncle Adam Michał Prażmowski was bishop of Płock. Prażmowski was taught in his father's house and visited in 1837, after the filing of the final examinations of the then eight-year upper secondary school, two years of so-called additional courses under the direction of former scholars of closed after the November Uprising in 1831 the Royal University of Warsaw. From 1839 Prażmowski worked as second assistant at Warsaw Astronomical Observatory, its director Franciszek Armiński was. First, he was responsible for weather observation. During this time Prażmowski wrote numerous articles for the monthly magazine Biblioteka Warszawska. Because of the poor funding of the observatory began to operate in his private apartment, a workshop for the repair and manufacture of scientific instruments. Already at this time he calculated lens systems and made barometer, thermometer and hydrometer. Following the example of Jean Foucault he installed in the observatory a pendulum to demonstrate the rotation of the earth.

From 1846 to 1849 he participated in geodetic surveying, Poland under the leadership of the Russian geodesics Carl Tenner ( 1783-1859 ). Prażmowski certain nodes of the trigonometric network and was a member of the Commission, which undertook the interconnections with the neighboring states of Prussia and Austria. After the death Armińskis he was in 1849 appointed the first assistant at the Warsaw Observatory. 1851, the professional world first became aware of the young astronomers. The calculation of the total solar eclipse of 1851 was ( now Tartu ) made ​​by Johann Heinrich von Mädler, the director of the observatory in Dorpat. Since Prażmowski distrusted the Berlin Ephemeris, which had used Mädler, he appointed himself the central line of the eclipse using the English ephemeris and found a deviation of several kilometers, which was later confirmed by the Director of the Greenwich Observatory George Biddell Airy. Prażmowski eventually led the expedition to Vysokie Mazowieckie, the central monitoring station of the solar eclipse of 28 July 1851. The following year he was invited to the Pulkovo Observatory of St. Petersburg, its director Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve him with the management of surveying the southern section of the Struve arc in Bessarabia commissioned. On a trip to Paris in 1856 Prażmowski offered by Urbain Le Verrier, director of the local observatory, a senior position, but he refused because he did not want to leave Poland at this time.

On July 18, 1860 Prażmowski observed in Briviesca in the province of Burgos in Spain another total solar eclipse. Discovering this, the radial polarization of the light of the corona, which proved that the corona only reflects light in contrast to the protuberances. This was also the question of whether the observed at total solar eclipses corona of the sun or the moon is allocated may also be resolved in favor of the sun. 1858 he had found in the observation of Comet Donati, that even the light of a comet's tail is polarized.

As of November 1, 1860 Prażmowski taught physics at the Akademia Medyko - Chirurgiczna ( Medical- Surgical Academy ), the first Warsaw School after the closure of the university in 1831. Two years later he became adjunct at the Faculty of Physics and Geodesy SzkoĹ główna.

Paris

In the summer of 1863 he began to study in Paris. His request for an extension of stay was denied and Prażmowski released on 1 April 1864. Although the Rector of SzkoĹ Główna, Józef Mianowski, once again intervened in his favor, because he did not want to lose such a talented employees, Prażmowski remained in Paris. He had taken a job in 1864 as an assistant in the optical workshop of Edmund Hartnack, in 1865 appointed him to the mechanical director of the company. As Hartnack 1870 had to leave due to the Franco-German war Paris, Prażmowski continued the business. 1878 sold Hartnack his Paris workshop. On January 25, 1879 Prażmowski received French citizenship.

Prażmowski, who had gained experience in the repair and construction of optical instruments in Warsaw already on the astronomical observatory, developed in Paris to a leading optician. He improved many instruments such as the Nicol prism Saccharimeter and coelostat and water immersion lenses for microscopes. Hartnack and Prażmowski received medals at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867 and 1878 and in Vienna in 1873. Prażmowskis After the death took over his master Bézu and Hausser 1885, the workshop and sold them in 1896 to Jean Alfred Nachet ( 1831-1908 ).

Prażmowski 1870 was a founding member of the Society of Exact Sciences in Paris ( Towarzystwo Nauk Ścisłych w Paryżu ), an association of Polish scientists in exile in Paris. From 1880 to 1882 he was its president. From 1874 to 1882 he edited the journal of the Society, the Pamiętniki Towarzystwa Nauk Ścisłych w Paryżu.

Writings

• A. Prażmowski: Rapport fait à le Directeur de l' Observatoire sur les travaux de l' central expedition de Bessarabia, entreprise en 1852 In: Bull. De l' Academie 1853
• A. Prażmowski: Observation de l' eclipse total de soleil du 18 juillet 1860 In: . Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Fri 51, 1860, pp. 195-197
• E. Hartnack, A. Prażmowski: Prisme polarisateur. In: Ann. Chim. 7, 1866, pp. 181-189
• E. Hartnack, A. Prażmowski: polarizing prism. In: Ann. Phys., 203, 1866, pp. 494-496.
• A. Prażmowski: Remarques relative à une communication récente you Secchi, sur le specter de la comète de Brorsen. In: Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Fri 66, 1868, pp. 1109-1111
• A. Prażmowski: Modification you saccharimètre optique. In: Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Fri 76, 1873, pp. 1212-1214
• A. Prażmowski: Hélioscope. In: Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Fri 79, 1874, pp. 33-35
• A. Prażmowski: Sur l' achromatisme Chimique. In: Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Fri 79, 1874, pp. 107-111
• A. Prażmowski: De la constitution of comètes. In: Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Fri 93, 1881, pp. 262-263