Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger

Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger ( born February 5, 1795 in Vienna, † March 19, 1871 in Dorn bei Wien, in today's 17th district of Vienna ) was an Austrian geologist and mineralogist.

Life

Like his father, Karl Haidinger, Wilhelm also interested in the components of the earth's crust. He studied from 1812 at the Johanneum in Graz with Friedrich Mohs Mineralogy and continued in 1817 to study with Mohs at the Mining Academy Freiberg continued after he had taken over the Chair in Freiberg as a successor to Abraham Gottlob Werner. Here he assisted Carl Gustav Adalbert von Weissenbach in the cataloging of the rock collections Werner and made ​​drawings of the minerals.

Between 1822 and 1826, he traveled with the banker Thomas Allan of Edinburgh Europe and Mohs translated into English. With his two brothers Rudolf and Eugen Haidinger he headed during the period from 1827 to 1840 together, the family-owned porcelain factory in Bohemia Elbogen.

Made in 1840 Haidingers vocation as Bergrat to Vienna. He directed, arranged and recorded the mineral collection of the Exchequer, and gave 1845 geognostical card for the Austrian lands out. On November 15, 1849 met Emperor Franz Joseph the Resolution, which he the kk Ministry of Landescultur and Mining for the " establishment of a geological Reichsanstalt " commissioned. On November 29, 1849, he appointed Haidinger director of the " Imperial and Royal Geological Reichsanstalt " in Vienna (now Geological Survey of Austria ), whose director was this for 17 years.

Wilhelm Ritter von Haidinger in 1866 went into retirement. The downed at that time Austrian territory in today's Ukrainian Carpathians in the same year Knyahinya meteorite he described first.

Honors

Since April 7, 1842 Haidinger is registered in the Prussian Academy of Sciences as a corresponding member. In 1852 he was made an honorary member of the Nassau Association for Natural History.

From the King of Saxony in 1854, he received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Albrecht. As a sign of gratitude and reverence Haidinger received on 29 April 1856 the first named after him Haidinger Medal, the highest award that has since been awarded by the Geological Survey. In 1857 he was inducted into the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts. For his services as director, he was beaten to Erbritter 1865.

In his honor, the mineral Haidingerit was named. In New Zealand, Mount Haidinger and on the moon, a lunar crater named after him. The polarized between 1844 and 1854 described Contrast light phenomenon is named after its discoverer Haidinger - tufts. Developed by Naber Dichroscope, a magnifying glass for the analysis of crystals is also referred to as Haidinger motion.

He received an honorary grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery (Group 0, number 1, number 7). In 1974 in Vienna Landstrasse (3rd district) was named the Haidingergasse after him.

Writings

  • Treatise on Mineralogy, 3 Bd, Edinburgh, 1825, doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.25980 ( revised translation of Mohs floor plan of Mineralogy )
  • Foundations of Mineralogy, 1829
  • About the direct detection of polarized light. Poggendorfs Annals, Vol 63, 1844, pp. 29-39
  • Handbook of determining mineralogy, 1845 and 1865
  • Geognostic overview map of the Austrian Empire, 1845
  • Scientific treatises of Friends of Natural Science, 4 Bd 1847-50 (ed.)
  • Reports on the communications of friends of science in Vienna of the Friends of Science, Vol 7, 1847-52 (ed.)
Josef Kriehuber Freiberg University of Mining and Technology Loket Albert Order Haidinger (crater) Constantin von Wurzbach Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Neue Deutsche Biographie Integrated Authority File
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