August Toepler

August Joseph Ignaz Toepler ( born September 7, 1836 in Brühl, † March 6, 1912 in Dresden) was a physicist who in 1864 developed the Schlieren method of photography.

Life and work

He studied from 1855 to 1858 physics, mathematics and chemistry at the Berlin Royal Commercial Institute and worked at the Agricultural Academy in Poppelsdorf in Bonn from 1859. Toepler doctorate in 1860 in Jena in 1865 and was a professor of chemistry and chemical technology at the Riga Polytechnic (now Riga Technical University ). From 1869 to 1875 he taught at the University of Graz as a Professor of Physics, where according to his plans 1872-1875 a new physical institute was built.

Since 1876 was Toepler Professor of Physics and Director of the Physics Institute at the Polytechnic School in Dresden. Since 1879 he was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, 1885, he was inducted into the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences. In 1900 he went into retirement.

August Toepler died on March 6, 1912 in Dresden and was buried at St. John's Cemetery in Tolkewitz district.

Honors

In Dresden - Tolkewitz and in Berlin- Charlottenburg -Nord ( 1937) the streets are named after him.

A 1906 created by Peter Poeppelmann relief portrait of Toepler in 1982 rediscovered and unveiled on the occasion of his 150th birthday in the physics building of the Technical University of Dresden.

In honor of August Toepler and his son Maximilian Toepler (1870-1960) in 1961 of the Toepler - building of the Technical University was named.

Scientific achievements and writings

Toepler devoted to the theoretical and experimental physics. In 1862 he developed a very effective vacuum pump and 1864 the Schlieren method for imaging the density field in a transparent medium. In 1883, Toepler a magnetic balance. Even the more modern constructions Influenzelektrisiermaschinen go back to him, as he in 1865 his research on the " generate high DC currents " forced, and published in various journals that time in this research regularly from now on its latest scientific findings and work. Most of his articles appeared in the Vienna Gazette of the Imperial Academy of Sciences ( WA), but some also in Electrical Engineering Journal ( Year ):

In addition, appeared: