Berend Wilhelm Feddersen

Berend Wilhelm Feddersen ( born March 26, 1832 in Schleswig, † July 1, 1918 in Leipzig ) was a German physicist.

Life

Berend Wilhelm Feddersen, son of a notary, first attended high school in Schleswig. Being in the city, the Danish influence became stronger, he went in 1850 to the Gymnasium in Gotha and was there in 1851 the Abitur. Then he started in Göttingen, where he joined the fraternity Hannovera, the study of chemistry and physics, which he continued in Berlin and Kiel, where he became Doctor of 1857 phil. received his doctorate.

Feddersen lived since 1858 as a private scholar in Leipzig. In 1859 he succeeded in experiments with the Leyden jar to prove that each electric spark discharge is composed of individual ( damped ) oscillations. He realized that in one consisting of coil, capacitor and resistor circuit electrical vibrations are created and submitted with this discovery, the electrical resonant circuit the foundation for the work of fellow sheep Marketers Hertz and the Nobel laureate Marconi, a generation later, the message transmission revolutionized. This Feddersen was one of the founders of the wireless technology ( wireless connection ).

However, his name and his pioneering experiments in course of time came more and more into oblivion. He decided, therefore, to acquire the equipment used by him for the successful attempts of the German Museum in Munich. You are now in the exhibition department " physics " to visit the room " Electromagnetic Oscillations ".

Feddersen 1893 was co-editor of, founded by Johann Christian Poggendorff Biographic- hand literary dictionary on the history of the exact sciences. In 1918, he donated 100,000 marks, so that the work could be continued.

Social institutions in the city of Leipzig were considered by the couple Feddersen with donations. The couple bequeathed her townhouse last will and testament of the University of Leipzig.

Wilhelm Feddersen in 1903 a full member of the Saxon Society of Sciences.

1912 awarded him King Friedrich August III. of Saxony the title "Secret Councilor ".

Works (selection)

• Contributions to the knowledge of the electric spark. Mohr, Kiel 1857 ( zugl. dissertation, University of Kiel, 1854).
• Theodor des Coudres (ed.): discharge of the Leyden jar, intermittent, continuous, oscillatory discharge and laws used to calculate this. Treatises ... 1857-1866. With a portrait of the author in photogravure and 3 lithographed plates. W. Engelmann Verlag, Leipzig 1908 ( Ostwald 's classic of the exact sciences, Vol 166).
• To the discovery of the electric waves. Leipzig 1909.