Pieter van Musschenbroek
Pieter ( also Peter) van Musschenbroek [ mʌsxənbɾuk ] ( born March 14, 1692 in Leiden, † September 19, 1761 ) was a Dutch physician and scientist.
Life
As the son of the famous for its microscopes, telescopes and air pumps instrument maker Johann Joosten van Musschenbroek (1660-1707) Pieter came from childhood with technology and science into contact. After the completion of the Latin School in 1708, he took up the study of medicine at the University of Leiden in 1714 and received his doctorate at the philosopher, physicist and mathematician Willem Jacob ' s Gravensande. He then went to England, where he was impressed especially the lectures of the natural philosopher John Theophilus Desaguliers and Isaac Newton.
From 1719 to 1723 he taught mathematics, philosophy and medicine at the University of Duisburg. During this time he developed a close correspondence with the area famous for its physical instruments Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit.
1723 took over van Musschenbroek a professor at the University of Utrecht, which he presided as rector of the Alma Mater in the years 1729/30. 1734 he was appointed a Fellow of the British Royal Society (FRS ), a Corresponding Member of the French Académie des Sciences.
1739 he returned to Leiden and took over the successor of his former teacher 's Gravensande. In 1754 he received an honorary professorship at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, but he remained the Leiden University until his death in 1761. He had also participated in the organizational tasks of the educational institution and was 1743/44 President of the University.
On July 16th, 1724 van Musschenbroek Adriana van de Water married ( 1694-1732 ), a daughter of Willem and Maria Ouzeel. From this connection, the two children Maria (1725-1767) and Jan Willem van Musschenbroek (1729-1807) originate. After the death of his wife in 1738, he completed a second marriage with Helena Alstorphius ( 1692-1760 ), in whose grave he was also buried.
Research
Pieter van Musschenbroek dealt with emphasis on the empirical mainly with problems of electricity and capillarity. He also played an important role in the dissemination of Newton's views in physics. Also known are his meteorological measurements 1725-1740.
He invented a number of scientific instruments including a tribometer for the measurement of friction and wear, a Evaporators ( EvapometerAutomatic ) and a pyrometer for non-contact temperature measurement. Especially famous was the " Leyden jar ", a forerunner of the capacitor, which he developed with Pieter van der Cun ( Peter Cunaeus ).
Among his numerous writings the Elementa Physica (1726) are regarded as particularly influential.
Works
- Elementa physicae Conscripta in usus Academicos (1726, Leiden 1745 ( Online), 1769 translated into French ( 3 vols ) )
- Physicae experimentales, et geometricae, de magnets, tuborum capillarium vitreorumque speculorum attractione magnitudine terrae, cohaerentia corporum firmorum Dissertationes ut et ephemerides meteorologicae Ultrajectinae. ( 1729 )
- Tentamina Experimentorum naturalium Captorum In Academia del Cimento Quibus Commentarios, Experimenta Nova, Et orationem De methodo Instituendi Experimenta Physica Addidit (1731 )
- Beginsels the Natuurkunde, Beschreeven th services of Landgenooten, door Petrus van Musschenbroek, Waar by gevoegd is eene beschryving The nieuwe en onlangs uitgevonden Lucht Pumps, met veel hair gebruik dead proefnemingen (1736/1739)
- De Aeris praestantia in humani corporis humoribus ( 1739 )
- Oratio de Divina Sapientia. Leiden 1744
- Institutiones physicae Leiden 1748 (Online )
- Dissertatio physica de experimentalis magnets. Leiden 1754, ( Online)
- Compendium physicae experimentalis ( 1762)
- Institutiones logicae ( 1764)