Johann Georg Repsold

Johann Georg Repsold ( born September 19, 1770 in Wremen in Bremerhaven, † January 14, 1830 in Hamburg ) was a German precision mechanic and founder of the famous workshop for astronomical instruments.

Life

In addition to his general education Repsold received at Reinhard Woltman in Ritzebüttel at Cuxhaven private lessons specifically in hydraulic engineering, instrument making, drawing and mathematics.

With 19 years Repsold came to Hamburg and was employed there until 1795 as a surveyor in the city administration. In 1796 he became a water technician at Elbdeputation. Two years later he was promoted to Master syringe ( director of the fire department). Addition, he worked as a hobby of making of precision instruments.

In 1799 he founded in Hamburg a small manufactory for astronomical and geodetic instruments and tools. Here Repsold worked mainly as a designer. By Repsold heranzog microscopes for better reading of the pitch circles to telescopes, he was able to improve the accuracy of the meridian circle very. In the following years Repsold built, and later his sons and grandsons, the company further. The company A. Repsold & Sons has become a leading company in the manufacture of telescopes and existed until 1919.

1802 built a private observatory on the Repsold lying at the port Albertus Bastion.

1809 Repsold was elected upper syringe Master of All extinguishing system in Hamburg.

1812, during the Napoleonic occupation, the observatory had to be demolished. In the same year Repsold submitted a request for establishment of a new observatory at the City Wall. The request was not approved until ten years later by the Senate, under the condition that Repsold equip the observatory. The observatory was built in 1825 on the Henricusbastion and completed in 1828. First Observer was Christian August Friedrich Peters. 1833, the observatory was adopted as the State Institute of Hamburg.

From 1808, he was a friend of the royal court astronomer Heinrich Christian Schumacher, who in 1821 built the neighboring Danish Altona Altona Observatory and helped the Repsold in improving trigonometric equipment.

On January 14, 1830 Johann Georg Repsold died in a fire fighting operation in Hamburg when he was killed by a collapsing wall. His son Adolf Repsold led the workshop continued with his older brother Georg Repsold.

In honor of Johann Georg Repsold in 1918 discovered by Friedrich Karl Arnold Schwassmann in Hamburg asteroid (906 ) Repsolda was named after him. On the Moon, the crater Repsold was named after him, and also the column system Rimae Repsold. The buoy tender " Johann Georg Repsold " of Water and Shipping Authority Tonning was also named after Repsold.

Working

Among the best known works include Repsolds:

• The meridian circle in Göttingen,
• The apparatus for accurate measurement of the base length at Braak occasion of the trigonometrical survey of Denmark,
• The apparatus for measuring the geometrical basis according to Brahe for the pendulum apparatus of Schumacher and Bessel.