Adolf Martens
Adolf Martens ( born March 6, 1850 in Bakendorf at Hagenow, † July 24, 1914 in Great light field; Complete name Adolf Karl Gottfried Martens ) was a German material scientists and material tester.
Martens studied mechanical engineering, but had an early intensive engaged in the development of materials testing for the construction. 1879 Martens professor at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg. There he was for many years director of the Mechanical- Technical Research Institute and since 1884 director of the Materials Testing Office, which was moved in 1904 from Charlottenburg to Dahlem. Martens was one of the fathers of Materials Research and Testing and founded the science of materials testing in Germany.
He was a pioneer in the use of the microscope as an analytical tool for metal structure. He wrote important contributions to materials research, for example by improving metal microscope and by working on the constitution of metallic alloys. In 1899 he published the then highly acclaimed Handbook of material science. He designed numerous materials testing machines. Method for measuring the hardness of non-metals and the flash point of flammable liquids are associated with his name: scratch hardness MARTENS, flash point by Pensky-Martens.
On him the founding of the Royal Materialprüfungsamt goes back, from which today's Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM ) has emerged. Martens was a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin.
In his honor, a particular structure in the steel that is produced during rapid cooling and is responsible for the hardness of steel, internationally known as martensite. 2003 was renamed the Martens hardness of the ISO, the universal hardness.
In his name every two years from the Adolf -Martens- fund of the Adolf -Martens Award for the Advancement of Materials Science, the Materials Research and Testing and Safety Technology awarded.
In Berlin light field, a street was named after him in 1971. His grave is located in the town cemetery Dahlem.