Johann von Lamont
Johann Lamont or native John Lamont ( born December 13, 1805 in Corriemulzie, Braemar, Scotland, † August 5, 1879 in Munich's Bogenhausen ) was a Scottish- German astronomer and physicist and pioneered the exploration of the earth's magnetism. From 1835 until his death he was director of the observatory Bogenhausen.
Life
After the untimely accidental death of his father ( he fell from his horse in 1816 ) he received through the mediation of the Dean of the Scottish Benedictine a scholarship for the study of theology in Regensburg (1817 ), where he attended the Royal Bavarian Gymnasium. He should actually be constructed for theologians, but also fell in the fields of mathematics and the natural sciences as gifted and was therefore also promoted in these disciplines as well as in mechanics; particularly the latter later benefited him in constructing a new measuring system for terrestrial magnetism and astronomy. From 1827 he worked as an assistant to Johann Georg von Soldner at the observatory Bogenhausen, 1828 on an assistantship. In March 1830 he received his doctorate at the University of Munich. After the death of former Sold ( 1833) took over Lamont first acting head of the observatory and was appointed in July 1835 against stiff competition for the curator of the observatory.
He was first elected in 1835 as an associate and in 1837 a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. 1853 Lamont was appointed professor of astronomy at the Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich. By King Ludwig II, he was elevated to the personal nobility.
With the beginning of the exploration of the Earth's magnetic field by Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss in the early 1830s, Lamont increasingly interested in this field of knowledge. When the two 1836 the Göttingen Magnetic Union founded together with Wilhelm Weber, Lamont became a member in the same year. In the same year he also already the first measurements of terrestrial magnetism in Munich by and he tried to finance a geomagnetic observatory in Munich, in January 1840, the necessary funds by the former Bavarian King Ludwig I have been provided and on August 1st 1840 could be started with the measurements. Lamont developed was a Reisetheodolit which quickly became the standard instrument for observatories and for the measurement of regional magnetic mid-19th century. Due to its many measurements he created for Bavaria, the first Central European maps for terrestrial magnetism. In the years 1848-1854 he created with the help of this instrument cards with magnetic isolines for the southern states. These were the first of its kind in Central Europe. In the mid-1850s he expanded his surveying activities on Western Europe and created corresponding maps for France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Prussia.
His most important contribution to the investigation of nature, however, is the discovery that the Earth's magnetic field is subject to periodic fluctuations. Based on the observation of its moons certain Lamont also the mass of Uranus new.
In 1853 he was appointed on the basis of his scientific achievements Professor of Astronomy at the University of Munich.
Works
- Handbook of terrestrial magnetism. Berlin 1849
- Observationes astronomicae in specula regia Monachiensi (ed.)
- Annals of the Royal Observatory at Munich ( ed.)
Awards
- He was knighted by King Ludwig II under the name of Johann Lamont in the personal nobility.
- The Lamont - crater on the Moon and a crater on Mars were named after him.
- 1858 receives Johann Lamont the North Star Medal