Adolf Wüllner (13 June 1835, in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

– 6 October 1908, in

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

) was a German

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

. He studied physics at the universities of

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, qualifying as a lecturer at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

in 1858. In 1862 he became director of the vocational school in Aachen, and three years later taught classes in physics at the Poppelsdorf agricultural academy. In 1867 he was named an associate professor at the University of Bonn, and from 1869 onward, was a professor of physics at the

Technical University of Aachen RWTH Aachen University (), also known as North Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Technical University of Aachen, University of Aachen, or ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hoch ...

. In 1883–86 he served as academic rector.MKL1888:Wüllner
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon He is remembered for his work on the

specific heat In thermodynamics, the specific heat capacity (symbol ) of a substance is the heat capacity of a sample of the substance divided by the mass of the sample, also sometimes referred to as massic heat capacity. Informally, it is the amount of heat t ...

of liquids and gases, vapor tension, refractive indexes and

emission spectra The emission spectrum of a chemical element or chemical compound is the spectrum of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation emitted due to an electron making a atomic electron transition, transition from a high energy state to a lower energy st ...

Published works

He was the author of a successful textbook on

experimental physics Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and ...

that was published over several editions: * ''Lehrbuch der Experimentalphysik'' (2 volumes 1862–65; 5th edition, 4 volumes 1907): ** Vol. 1: ''Allgemeine Physik und Akustik'' – General physics and acoustics. ** Vol. 2: ''Die Lehre von der Wärme'' – On heat. ** Vol. 3: ''Die Lehre vom Magnetismus und von der Elektricität'' – On magnetism and electricity. ** Vol, 4: ''Die Lehre von der Strahlung'' – On radiation. Other noted works of his include: * ''Ueber den Einfluss des Procentgehaltes auf die Spannkraft der Dämpfe aus wässerigen Salzlösungen'' (inaugural dissertation, 1856). * ''Die Absorption des Lichtes in isotropen Mitteln'', 1862 – Absorption of light in

isotropic Isotropy is uniformity in all orientations; it is derived . Precise definitions depend on the subject area. Exceptions, or inequalities, are frequently indicated by the prefix ' or ', hence ''anisotropy''. ''Anisotropy'' is also used to describe ...

agents. * ''Einleitung in die Dioptrik des Auges'', 1866 – Introduction to the

dioptrics Dioptrics is the branch of optics dealing with refraction, similarly the branch dealing with mirrors is known as catoptrics. Dioptrics is the study of the refraction of light, especially by lenses. Telescopes that create their image with an object ...

of the eye. * ''Die Entwicklung der Grundanschauungen in der Physik im Laufe unseres Jahrhunderts'', 1887 – The development of the fundamental principles in physics during the course of our century. He was also the author of many scientific papers in the journal ''

Annalen der Physik und Chemie ''Annalen der Physik'' (English: ''Annals of Physics'') is one of the oldest scientific journals on physics; it has been published since 1799. The journal publishes original, peer-reviewed papers on experimental, theoretical, applied, and mathema ...

''.Adolf Wüllner
de.Wikisource (bibliography)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wullner, Adolf 1835 births 1908 deaths Scientists from Düsseldorf University of Bonn faculty RWTH Aachen University faculty 19th-century German physicists University of Bonn alumni Scientists from North Rhine-Westphalia