Carl August von Steinheil
Carl August von Steinheil ( born October 12, 1801 in Rappoltsweiler, Alsace, † 12 September 1870 in Munich) was a German physicist, astronomer, optician and entrepreneur.
Life and work
Steinheil studied since 1821 to obtaining the rights, then in Göttingen and at Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel at Königsberg astronomy and physics. In Erlangen Steinheil was a member of the fraternity officially banned. After graduating in 1825, he lived as a private scholar on his father's estate to Perlachseck, preoccupied with astronomical, physical and mechanical work ( development of his prism circle). He was elected in 1835 as an associate in 1837 a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and in 1835 was appointed conservator of the mathematical and physical collection of the State and at the same time appointed as professor of mathematics and physics at the University of Munich.
Steinheil constructed in 1836 the first write telegraph (see Steinheil font ), which, however, was not included in the practice. In 1838 he discovered in experiments on the tracks of the Bavarian Ludwig Railway in Fürth, the electrical " ground return ". This meant a considerable simplification for the telegraph.
In 1839 he constructed a tubular camera from sliding cardboard tubes and photographed so that together with his colleague Franz Ritter von Hess Peter in Munich, among others, the Glyptothek and the towers of the Frauenkirche. They used as a photosensitive material silver chloride paper. The negatives taken they photographed from again and were thus positive. These round photos had a diameter of about 4 cm. The method they called crystal healing process.
In 1842 he was commissioned by the Bavarian government to regulate the Bavarian weights and measures. In connection with this work, he earned contributions to the improvement of beer and alcohol scales. Steinheil was appointed in 1846 by the Neapolitan government to regulate the local weights and measures system.
In 1849 he stepped down as Head of the Department of telegraphy in the Department of Commerce in Austrian service and a renewed and extended the telegraph system for all crown lands. He also participated in 1850 in the founding of the German - Austrian Telegraph Association. In 1851 he followed a call by the Swiss government to set up the telegraph system in this country.
In 1852 he returned to Munich back to his old position as curator of the mathematical and physical collections of the State of Bavaria. With this return routing to the Ministerial in the Department of Commerce (with corresponding salary increase ) was associated.
In his return to Munich Steinheil invented along with Jean Bernard Léon Foucault a method for silvering of glass surfaces by means of a thin layer of silver. This is a crucial step for the development of large reflecting telescopes was free, which should replace the refractors as powerful astronomical instruments soon. A basis for this invention were his scientific work on the laws of electroforming.
Steinheil continue invented an electric main and secondary clock system (1839 ), constructed a Pyroskop and a Zentrifugalwurfgeschütz.
1855 came Steinheil a personal request of the Bavarian King Maximilian II and founded by an optical workshop in Schwabing, which later became Optical Astronomical Institute CA Steinheil & Sons. He was assisted by his son Hugo Adolph Steinheil. 1860 also appeared his second son, Eduard Steinheil in the company. The company has continued to 1862 by Hugo Adolph Steinheil on. The operation was temporarily located in the Suresnes lock.
From the company excellent telescopes, spectroscopes and a first photometer emerged, which was good for the photometry of stars. Interest in the photometry joined C.A. Steinheil with Ludwig Seidel, who also acted after the death of the founder as a scientific consultant to the Company.
His grave is located in Section 34 in the new part of the Old Südfriedhofs in Munich.
Others
In Berlin are located on Postfuhramt on the facade of the ground floor between the arches of the windows 25 medallions of personalities who have rendered services to the postal system. The No. 24 is devoted to crystal healing because of its reasoning, the electromagnetic telegraph and construction of the first printing telegraph.
There is a crater on the moon Steinheil (diameter 67 km), which forms a double crater on the southeastern edge of the moon along with the crater watts. Shortly after the full moon is the crater already to discover with a small telescope.
The Steinheilstraße in Maxvorstadt in Munich is named after him, as is the Steinheilstraße in Erlangen -Bruck, Ingolstadt, Nuremberg and Würzburg and the Steinheilgasse in Vienna Floridsdorf.
In the district Stöttham the community Chieming there is the Steinheilhof, which serves the family as a summer residence.