Walther Müller

Walther Müller ( born September 6, 1905 in Hannover, † December 4, 1979 in Walnut Creek, California ) was a German physicist.

Life and work

Walther Müller studied physics, chemistry and philosophy at the University of Kiel. In 1925 he became the first graduate student of the new professor Hans Geiger, with whom he conducted research in the field of impact ionization of gases. Her best-known work is the development of them in 1928 Geiger- Müller counter, is an indispensable tool for the measurement of radioactivity.

As a violinist, 1929, the University of Kiel left and accepted a call to Tübingen, miller ended direct collaboration with his teacher. Müller moved to the industrial development. Initially, he worked for Siemens-Reiniger in Rudolstadt, after a one-year contract with the Berlin Julius Pintsch KG he took over from 1940 to 1945 head of research at Philips in Hamburg.

Since after the war in Germany, the nuclear technical research was prohibited, he worked as a consultant for various companies until 1951 he followed a call of the Ministry of Economy to Australia. There he founded after the end of his contract a company for the production of Geiger- Müller counter tubes. In 1958 he accepted a position at the General Telephone & Elektronics Research in Palo Alto (USA). Most recently he was an employee of General Motors in Santa Barbara.

Writings (selection )

  • The role of the positive ion in the automatic discharge in air. In: Journal of physics. Volume 48, number 9-10, 1928, pp. 624-646 ( dissertation; doi: 10.1007/BF01339313 ).

With Hans Geiger:

  • Elektronenzählrohr to measure the weakest activities. In: The natural sciences. Volume 16, Volume 31, 1928, pp. 617-618 ( doi: 10.1007/BF01494093 ).
  • The Elektronenzählrohr. In: Physical review. Volume 29, 1928, pp. 839-841.
  • The Elektronenzählrohr, its mode of operation and applicability. In: Research and progress. Volume 5, 1929, pp. 127-128.
  • Technical remarks on Elektronenzählrohr. In: Physical review. Volume 30, 1929, pp. 489-493.
  • Demonstration of Elektronenzählrohrs. In: Physical review. Volume 30, 1929, p 523
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