Heinrich Greinacher

Heinrich Greinacher ( born May 31, 1880 in St. Gallen, † April 17, 1974 in Bern ) was a Swiss physicist. He is considered an original experimenter and is the developer of the magnetron and the Greinacher circuit.

Greinacher was the only child of the shoemaker Heinrich Greinacher and his wife Pauline, born coins Mayer. He attended high school in St. Gallen and studied physics in Zurich, Geneva and Berlin. At the Geneva Conservatory Greinacher was trained also in piano. Originally a German citizen, he was naturalized in 1894 in St. Gallen. In Berlin Greinacher attended lectures by Max Planck and his doctorate in 1904 with Emil Warburg. His habilitation, in 1907 at the University of Zurich.

Greinacher in 1912 titular professor in Zurich. From 1924 to 1952 he was then full professor of experimental physics at the University of Bern and Director of the Physics Institute (formerly Physical Cabinet ).

Developed in 1912 Greinacher the magnetron and provided a basic mathematical description of this tube. In 1914 he invented the ( a rectifier circuit for voltage doubling ) still used today, named after him Greinacher circuit. In 1920 he discovered the voltage multiplication in the cascade generator, and developed methods for detecting charged particles ( proportional counter radio meter ). In the 1930s, the Greinacher circuit for the study of atomic nuclei was used; British researchers discovered that artificial radioactivity.

Greinacher was married twice: in 1910 with the German Mahlmann Marie, with whom he had two children, starting in 1933 with Frieda Urben from Inkwil.

Foundation

The Heinrich Greinacher Foundation in Bern was founded in 1988 from the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Frieda and Heinrich Greinacher. Interest earned on the endowment will be used for the Heinrich Greinacher price and the promotion of young researchers.