Kristian Birkeland
Kristian Olaf Bernhard Birkeland ( born December 13, 1867 in Kristiania, † June 15, 1917 in Tokyo ) was a Norwegian physicist, who held a chair at the University of Oslo since 1898. It was proposed seven times for the Nobel Prize in physics, without receiving the coveted award.
After schooling in his hometown of Kristiania ( now Oslo ), he started at the local university to study chemistry, mathematics and physics. Between 1893 and 1895 he stayed to study in France, Germany ( where he studied with Henri Poincaré ) and Switzerland. After his return to Norway he was 1896 to become the youngest member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences.
Birkeland organized several Norwegian polar expeditions and created in 1896 the first scientific analysis of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis ). In the terrella experiments he produced in 1896 and 1913 a corresponding luminous phenomenon experimentally in the laboratory.
Along with Sam Eyde in 1903, he developed the Birkeland Eyde - process for the production of artificial fertilizers and nitric acid salt. Here, the nitrogen from the air is oxidised using an arc. Together they founded in 1905 the company Norsk Hydro, which generated the necessary for the process of high amounts of electricity from hydropower. The investment in the company made Birkeland wealthy.
From 1910 could Birkeland's scientific activities significantly after, possibly as a result of mercury poisoning, which he had incurred in connection with the terrella experiments. Research trips still took him to Jordan, Japan, India and especially to Egypt, where he lived 1914-1917, and a private observatory operation.
Birkeland filed for 59 patents, including an electromagnetic cannon ( auftraf even if the projectile correctly ) spectacularly failed at a public demonstration for potential customers, however due to a short circuit. He wanted the funds from the sale to finance its auroral expeditions and experiments.
His scientific papers he wrote mostly in French. The Technical University of Dresden already named him an honorary doctorate in 1908.
Birkeland died in 1917, probably by an overdose of veronal in combination with alcohol.
Since 1994, Birkeland is mapped to the 200 -krone notes of the Bank of Norway. The asteroid ( 16674 ) Birkeland and a crater on the moon back were named after him.
He was married to Ida Charlotte Hammer since 1905, but the marriage was divorced in 1911 and remained childless. Richard Birkeland was his cousin.