Friedrich Mohs

Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs ( born January 29, 1773 in Gernrode ( resin ); † September 29, 1839 in Agordo, Italy), was a German -Austrian mineralogist.

Mohs studied mathematics, physics and chemistry at the University of Halle (Saale ). At the Freiberg he completed his studies with an additional specialist mechanics. One of his teachers in Freiberg was the mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner and Geognostiker who introduced Mohs in his pockets. 1801 Moh mine foreman in Neudorf in the Harz Mountains. In 1802 he first came to Vienna, to sort and annotate the rock collection of the banker JF van der Null.

Mohs 1812 was appointed professor of mineralogy at the Joanneum in Graz. During this time he developed his namesake Mohshärteskala. With its classification of minerals that stood out especially on the physical properties (shape, hardness, brittleness, specific gravity ) of its objects, the Mohs was in opposition to most of his colleagues who put the emphasis on the chemical composition. From 1817 he participated as a successor to the chair of his teacher Werner at the Freiberg. Mohs developed about the same time, but claims to be independent of Christian Samuel Weiss, a concept of crystal systems, which he published in 1822. 1826 was followed by an appeal to Vienna. His lectures to he held but the mineral cabinet. In 1834 he was here with his professorship also one of the Kustodenstellen. Mohs in 1835 was appointed as a mining engineer in the Mining Leoben and also left the mineral cabinet.

Mohs died in 1839 on a trip to Italy and was also buried in a grave of honor in Vienna's central cemetery. In Vienna Landstrasse (3rd district), and Graz - Lend Mohsgasse is named after him.