Arthur von Oettingen

Arthur Joachim von Oettingen (born 16 Märzjul / March 28 1836greg on the estate Ludenhof at Dorpat, Livonia, now Estonia, .. † September 5, 1920 in Bensheim, circle mountain road, Hesse ) was a Baltic German physicist and music theorist, professor at the universities of Dorpat and Leipzig, Imperial Russian Real State Council.

Family

He came from an old, originally from Westphalia noble family and was the son of the landowner Alexander von Oettingen (1798-1846), Livonian land marshal and district administrator, and Helene von Knorring ( 1793-1863 ).

Natalie from Brackelsberg

Oettingen married on 24 April 1869 in Dorpat Natalie of Brackelsberg ( born August 17, 1850 in Warta, County Sieradz, Poland, † February 12, 1913 in Leipzig, Saxony ), the daughter of the Imperial Russian Major General Woldemar of Brackelsberg and Katharina Elisabeth Duffing.

His two brothers, George (1824-1916), and Alexander von Oettingen (1827-1905) were also active at the University of Dorpat. Three other brothers, August Georg Friedrich (1823-1908), Nicolai Conrad Peter (1826-1876) and Eduard Reinhold (1829-1919), were active in the Livonian state politics.

Life

Oettingen studied in Dorpat ( 1853-1855 ) Astronomy, then physics. In 1859, he was with the work over a class of definite integrals candidate of physics. As in Dorpat experimental physics was not represented, he continued his studies in Paris in 1859 and from 1860 in Berlin continued. In Paris, he not only studied physics in the laboratories of Antoine César Becquerel and Henri Victor Regnault but also attended courses on mathematics, anatomy and physiology. In Berlin, he worked in the laboratories of Heinrich Gustav Magnus, Johann Christian Poggendorff, Heinrich Wilhelm Dove and Karl Adolph Paalzow. In addition, he again heard mathematics lectures, among others, Jacob Steiner, whose synthetic geometry he himself scientifically represented later.

After returning to Dorpat he received his doctorate in 1862 with the work of the residue of the Leyden battery as a test agent for the type of discharge to the Master and acquired with overnight charging the Leyden battery by induction and via the discharge of the battery through the Inductorium teaching skills as a lecturer. In 1865 he received his doctorate with the work about the correction of the thermometer, especially on Bessel 's Kalibrir method to the doctor and was in the same year, associate professor and full professor in March 1868 in his hometown. Oettingen focused particularly on the Meteorology and founded an observatory in Dorpat, in 1869 assigned to the university.

Since the eighties, there was increasing political conflicts in the Baltic countries, which were transmitted on higher education. 1888 Oettingen was indeed emeritus, but initially continued to be employed for five years as an honorary professor. 1893 could be because of Oettingen in Leipzig, where he worked on the recommendation of his pupil Wilhelm Ostwald as a lecturer and in 1894 appointed honorary professor. He held until 1919 this office.

Oettingen was scientifically active in the thermodynamics and was the first European physicist who prepared the ideas Josiah Willard Gibbs the way. He invented the Anämometer to measure wind speeds. He also dealt with the basics of music theory and is a passionate advocate of the harmonic dualism, the interpretation of the minor chord as the major chord mirror-symmetric sub sound. Following Hermann von Helmholtz and many other physicists and musicians he constructed with his 1916 finished Orthotonophonium a harmonium in just intonation, whose Tondisposition was designed starting symmetrically according to its dualistic conceptions of sound d. On this instrument, the octave is divided into 53 non-tempered pitches, so that can be of all shades intone purely tuned thirds and fifths, but no Naturseptimen. In his book The dual harmony system he introduced in 1913, the Milli octave as unit of a micro-intervals. For this he divided the octave in 1000 mO. This measure has, however, can not prevail against the division in 1200 cents (100 cents per tempered semitone). Through the reception of music theorists such as Hugo Riemann, Richard Wicke and Jens Rohwer some of his thoughts for a long time were discussed; the few later theorists who took up his ideas heard Martin Vogel. In 1909 he founded, together with Edwin Bormann and Georg Bötticher the Leipzig Künstlerbund the Leonids.

Oettingen died on September 5, 1920 in Bensheim on the mountain road, where he had drawn in 1919 to his son Reinhart. He was buried in the South Cemetery in Leipzig.

Medals and Decorations

• St. Stanislaus
• Russian Order of St. Anne
• Order of St. Vladimir

Publications (selection)

• The residue of the Leyden battery as a test agent for the type of discharge, Dorpat, 1862, in: Annals of Physics and Chemistry 191 (1862 ), pp. 513-557.
• About the loading of the Leyden battery by induction and via the discharge of the battery through the Inductorium, Dorpat, 1863, in: Annals of Physics and Chemistry 194 (1863 ), pp. 369-406.
• About the correction of the thermometer, especially on Bessel 's Kalibrir method, Dorpat, 1865.
• Harmony system in dual- development. Studies on the theory of music, Dorpat and Leipzig 1866.
• "On the achievable at the reversible cyclical process of permanent gases quantity of labor ", in: Annals of physics and chemistry supplementary Bd. 5 (1871 ), pp. 540-563.
• " Northern Lights - Spectrum", in: Annals of Physics and Chemistry 222 (1872), pp. 284-287.
• Keynote speaker at the anniversary of the foundation of the University of Tartu, Tartu, 1873.
• "On artificially induced Interruption of oscillatorischen discharges of a Leyden battery and on the law of electric shock length ", in: Annals of Physics and Chemistry cheering Bd. (1874 ), pp. 269-280.
• " The discharge of the Leyden battery residue in its dependence on the nature of isolirenden substance", in: Annals of Physics and Chemistry 238 (1877), pp. 305-326.
• Phenology of Dorpat Lignosen, Dorpat, 1879.
• Eye and ear, Dorpat in 1882.
• Meteorological observations at Dorpat hired Dorpat (1871-1893), with critical essays
• The thermodynamic relationships developed antithetical, St. Petersburg 1885.
• "Some observations on the instinct of the birds ", in: Proceedings of the Tartu Naturalists Society 7 (1886 ), pp. 328-332.
• " The method of the revolving mirror ", in: Central Newspaper of Optics and Mechanics 8 (1887 ), pp. 229-230 and 268-269.
• " The Werthigkeit the meaning of life and science ", in: Baltic Monthly Journal 37 (1890 ), pp. 295-308.
• " Remarks on the paper of Mr. Adolf Heydweiller: ' Over spark discharges of the induction-coil in normal air ' ", in: Annals of Physics and Chemistry 276 (1890), pp. 74-82.
• Commemorative speech to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Wilhelm Struve ( = quarterly magazine of the Astronomical Society 29), Bonn, 1893.
• Elements of geometric perspective drawing, Leipzig 1901.
• " The dual system of harmony", in: Annals of Natural Philosophy 1 (1902 ), pp. 62-75; 2 (1903 /4), pp. 375-403; 3 (1904 ), pp. 241-269; 4 (1905 ), pp. 116-152 and 301-338; 5 (1906 ), pp. 449-503.
• The perspective images of the circle conic, Leipzig 1906.
• " Judging perspective images with respect to the position of the judge ", in: Annals of Natural Philosophy 5 (1906 ), pp. 349-377.
• " The law of causality ", in: Annals of Natural Philosophy 6 (1907 ), pp. 459-475.
• "A letter from Arthur von Oettingen ", in: From Baltic Spirit Work 2 (1909 ), pp. 173-181 ( autobiographical presentation, emphasis in: . Baltic memoirs ed, v. Alexander Eggers, Heilbronn 1926, pp. 183-191 ).
• The School of Physics. Especially for self-study, Braunschweig 1910.
• The dual harmony system, Leipzig 1913.
• " The basics of musicology and the dual Reinistrument ", in: Proceedings of the mathematical-physical class of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences 34 (1917 ), pp. I- XVI and 155-361.
• (Ed.): Johann Christian Poggendorff's Biographic- Literary Handwörterbuch the history of the exact sciences. Vol 3 and 4 in 1898 and 1904.
• The properties of water and their significance for understanding the nature, in: From Baltic intellectual work, speeches and essays newly published by the German club in Livonia, bands X, Publisher of Jonck & Poliewsky, Riga 1909
• A requirement of the picturesque Perspective considered from the mathematical stand-point from. Reprinted from the reports of the mathematical- physical class of the Royal. Saxon. Society of Sciences in Leipzig. Meeting on November 14, 1901