Arthur König

Arthur Peter King (* September 13, 1856 in Krefeld, † October 26, 1901 in Berlin) was a German physicist who was known for his work on physiological optics.

King was disabled from birth by a kyphosis, which also led to his early death. He studied physics at the University of Bonn, the University of Heidelberg and from 1879 at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he assistant to Hermann von Helmholtz in 1879 and in 1882 received his doctorate. From 1883 he devoted himself to the physiological optics. In 1890 he became director of the Physics Department of the Physiological Institute of the University of Berlin.

He was married in 1870 to Laura Köttgen, with whom he had a son, Arthur King ( 1896-1966 ), the astronomer was. He was for many years head of the astronomy department at Carl Zeiss in Jena, after the Second World War Observer at the Heidelberg State Observatory and last honorary professor in Mainz.

King made ​​fundamental contributions to physiological optics. He determined with Conrad Dieterici the spectral sensitivity of rods and cones in the color perception. They clarified at that time, for example by Helmholtz and James Clerk Maxwell examined trichromatic theory of color perception. King and Dieterici led dichromate in color blindness experimentally back to the lack of a power take-off variety.

In 1889 he became editor of the negotiations of the German Physical Society. From 1891 he was with H. Ebbinghaus editor of the journal of psychology and physiology of the sense organs. In 1896, he was the second edition of the Handbook of Physiological Optics Helmholtz out after his death.