Max Pressler

Maximilian Robert Pressler ( born January 17, 1815 in Dresden- Friedrichstadt, † September 30, 1886 in Tharandt ) was a German engineer, forest scientist, inventor and economist.

As a father of soil net income doctrine, which exerted a strong influence on the German forestry, he is one of the most controversial figures in the history of forestry. The inventive Preßler also developed an increment borer and the " measuring servant ".

Life and work

Max Preßler was the son of the grand chamberlain Johann Preßler and grew up in poverty. He attended secondary school and from 1830 - 1834 / 35, the Technical School in Dresden. After this study of engineering, he worked from 1836 as a senior teacher at the Trade School of Zittau. In 1840, Pressler was appointed professor of agricultural and forestry engineering and mathematics at the Academy for farmers and foresters to Tharandt. Until his retirement in 1883 he worked there intensively mathematical and economic issues.

With his first book published in 1858 The rational forest Wirth and his silviculture of the highest-return Preßler caused a great stir in forestry circles. This is represented goal was a maximum return on the capital floor. His theses came immediately to the controversial question of the day forest. That Preßler had declared the highest financial effect on the criterion of rational forest management, met with most foresters first sharp rejection. In a review of Preßlers book Friedrich Wilhelm Leopold Pfeil recognized although the mathematical consistency of the calculations made therein, rejected the adoption of these ideas in the forest practice but with reference to the then no longer ensured sustainability Strongly object. Similarly, significantly Heinrich Christian Burckhardt expressed.

Notwithstanding Preßler developed his theory continuously, so that he was in the sequel to Father of the so-called ground net income doctrine which he propagated in militant writings. In 1865 he presented his teaching in the congregation German farmers and foresters in Dresden. At least began their run in practice, especially when young forest. Although most of the German state forest administrations - especially Hannover, Prussia and Bavaria - refused to introduce the ground net income doctrine was been lining Saxony from 1867 to 1920 then. Tharandt became the center of the forestry school of soil net income doctrine, which for decades was the prevailing opinion on the forest departments.

"The new doctrine was not an aberration of a mathematician to non-specialist area, it was quite the train of economic thought of the time and was eagerly taken up by many forest scientists. An individual spoke only what many others thought and thought. It evolved over decades lasting passionate and often hateful strife of the schools (soil net income to net forest income). "

After Preßlers calculations section next to the pine, spruce, based on the soil net gain on top. For the mathematicians had come in the eyes of many of his contemporaries a convincing scientific rationale for the increased cultivation of conifers. So the spruce was in Saxony, where the industrial revolution was a great demand for wood wherever it was possible, terraced. Thus, large pure stands originated ( monocultures ). One example that quickly found imitators in Germany, so that the area under cultivation of spruce across the country has been extended far beyond their actual natural geographical borders - with profound effects on the landscape and ecology of forests. The rise of the spruce to the " bread tree " forest owners, but also devastating insect and storm damage in justified as monoculture coniferous forests can be seen as an indirect consequence of the ideas Preßlers.

In addition to his economic investigations Preßler also confirmed as an inventor. So he constructed an increment borer, a mechanical drill (hollow drill), can be taken from standing trees with the wood samples. On the basis of these samples allows the number of annual rings and hence the age and growth of a tree determine to have to make without it. The Preßlersche Zuwachsbohrer still belongs to the tools in forestry and science in a developed form today.

It was known also developed by him measuring servant ( engineering measurement servant ). This measurement and calculation tool in wallet size could only be used among other things for height and area calculations, angle measurements and flatwork. Preßler examined the figures with a lot of downright overloaded instrument as " mathematical Cinderella " - as he called it - not only with engineers of different disciplines, but also in school and everyday workshop use to make popular.

Professor Max Robert Pressler died on September 30, 1886 in Tharandt.

Awards

The University of Giessen conferred Preßler for his research honorary doctorate. The king appointed him to the Royal Saxon Privy Councilor. In addition to this title Preßler was awarded numerous medals and was an honorary member of many clubs. A bust of him stands in the entrance of the Forest Botanical Garden Tharandt.

Writings (selection )

• The Meßknecht, an extremely simple, geführliches, cheap and varied applicable measurement and Berechnungsinstrumentchen for want of forest officials, forest owners, agriculturists, timber merchants, building trades and the like. Along with explanations on the calculation Gangloff'schen wood floor, Braunschweig 1852
• The Meßknecht and his internship, Tharandt 1852
• New Viehmeßkunst. A tool for easy and safe measurement of total and variety weight, and the mast progress of slaughter animals of all kinds - without any account and for how any mass and weight. For agriculturists, cattle fattening, cattle dealer, butcher 's and for taxation, Dresden 1856
• New holzwirthschaftliche panels ... etc., Leipzig 1857
• The rational forest Wirth and his silviculture of the highest-return ... etc., 2 volumes, Dresden 1858/1885 (later highest under the title The rational forest economist and his Nachhaltswaldbau net income )
• The forestry financial accounting with application to forest appreciation and economic operation in 1859
• The Hochwald operation of the highest ground force at the highest mass and net income in 1865
• The silviculture of economists as the founder of a true union between agriculture and forestry, and their schools, 1868
• Forstliches Hülfsbuch for school and practice in sheets and rules for execution holzwirthschaftlicher and technically related measurement, estimation billing and operational work, Dresden 1869
• Holzwirthschaftliche panels according to the metric Maass, 1873

Preßlers works mostly experienced several new editions to the first third of the 20th century, with the title varied in each case. He was also one of the editors of the two-volume standard work The Holzmeßkunst (Berlin 1873) and edited the 6th edition of Friedrich Wilhelm Leopold arrow Forestry ( Leipzig, 1870).