Everything about Johann Christian Poggendorff totally explained
Johann Christian Poggendorff (
December 29,
1796 -
January 24,
1877),
German physicist, was born in
Hamburg.
Introduction
Poggendorff was a physicist of high (although not of the very highest) rank. He was wanting in mathematical ability but was an
able and conscientious experimenter. Poggendorff never displayed in any remarkable degree the power of scientific generalization, which, whether accompanied by mathematical skill or not, never fails to mark the highest genius in physical science. He was, however, very fertile and ingenious in devising physical apparatus. By far the greater and more important part of his work related to
electricity and
magnetism. Poggendorff is known for his
electrostatic motor which is analogous to
Wilhelm Holtz's
electrostatic machine.
Biography
His father, a wealthy manufacturer, having been all but ruined by the French siege, he had, when only sixteen, to apprentice himself to an
apothecary in Hamburg, and when twenty-two began to earn his living as an apothecary's assistant at Itzehoe. Ambition and a strong inclination towards a scientific career led him to throw up his business and remove to Berlin, where he entered the
university in
1820. Here his abilities were speedily recognized, and in
1823 he was appointed
meteorological observer to the Academy of Sciences.
Even at this early period he'd conceived the idea of founding a physical and chemical scientific journal, and the realization of this plan was hastened by the sudden death of
Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert, the editor of
Gilbert's Annalen der Physik, in
1824 Poggendorff immediately put himself in communication with the publisher, Barth of Leipzig, with the result that he was installed as editor of a scientific journal,
Annalen der Physik und Chemie, which was to be a continuation of
Gilbert's Annalen on a somewhat extended plan. Poggendorff was admirably qualified for the post, and edited the journal for 52 years, until
1876. In 1826, Poggendorff developed the
mirror galvanometer, a device for detecting electric currents.
He had an extraordinary memory, well stored with scientific knowledge, both modern and historical, a cool and impartial judgment, and a strong preference for facts as against theory of the speculative kind. He was thus able to throw himself into the spirit of modern experimental science. He possessed in abundant measure the German virtue of orderliness in the arrangement of knowledge and in the conduct of business. Further he'd an engaging geniality of manner and much tact in dealing with men. These qualities soon made Poggendorff's
Annalen the foremost scientific journal in Europe.
In the course of his fifty-two years editorship of the
Annalen Poggendorff couldn't fail to acquire an unusual acquaintance with the labors of modern men of science. This knowledge, joined to what he'd gathered by historical reading of equally unusual extent, he carefully digested and gave to the world in his
Biographisch-literarisches Handworterbuch zur Geschichte der exacten Wissenschaften, containing notices of the lives and labors of mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, and chemists, of all peoples and all ages. This work contains an astounding collection of facts invaluable to the scientific biographer and historian. The first two volumes were published in
1863; after his death a third volume appeared in
1898, covering the period
1858-
1883, and a fourth in
1904, coming down to the beginning of the
20th century.
His literary and scientific reputation speedily brought him honorable recognition. In
1830 he was made royal professor, in
1834 Hon. Ph.D. and extraordinary professor in the University of Berlin, and in
1839 member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Many offers of ordinary professorships were made to him, but he declined them all, devoting himself to his duties as editor of the
Annalen, and to the pursuit of his scientific researches. He died at Berlin on the
January 24,
1877.
Illusion
The
Poggendorff Illusion is an
optical illusion that involves the brain's perception of the interaction between diagonal lines and horizontal and vertical edges. It is named after Poggendorff, who discovered it in the drawing of
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner, in which he showed the
Zöllner illusion in
1860. In the picture to the left, a straight black line is obscured by a dark gray rectangle. The black line appears disjointed, although it's in fact straight; the second picture illustrates this fact.
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