Franz Richarz (15 October 1860, in Endenich – 10 June 1920, in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

) was a German physicist. His father, also named Franz Richarz (1812–1887), was a noted psychiatrist. He studied mathematics and physics at the universities of

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 ...

and

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 ...

, receiving his doctorate in 1884 with the dissertation ''Bildung von Ozon, Wasserstoffsuperoxyd und Ueberschwefelsäure bei der Electrolyse verdünnter Schwefelsäure'' ("The formation of

ozone Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...

hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3%� ...

and

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...

during the

electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of elements from n ...

dilute sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...

"). In 1888 he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

and worked as a lecturer of physics at the University of Bonn. In 1895 he succeeded

Anton Oberbeck Anton Oberbeck (25 March 1846 – 23 October 1900) was a German physicist from Berlin. He studied at Heidelberg and the University of Berlin, obtaining his doctorate from the latter in 1868. From 1870 to 1878 he was a teacher at Sophien-Realgymnas ...

as professor of physics at the University of Greifswald, where he also served as director of the Physics Institute. In 1901 he relocated as a professor to the University of Marburg. In 1907 he became a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina. With Otto Krigar-Menzel, he conducted a series of experiments for determination of the

gravitational constant The gravitational constant (also known as the universal gravitational constant, the Newtonian constant of gravitation, or the Cavendish gravitational constant), denoted by the capital letter , is an empirical physical constant involved in ...

and the Earth's mean density.

Selected works

* ''Bestimmung der Gravitationsconstante und der mittleren Dichtigkeit der Erde durch Wägungen'', 1898 – Determination of the gravitational constant and the mean density of the earth by way of weighing. * ''Neuere fortschritte auf dem gebiete der elektrizität'', 1899; Recent advances in the field of electricity. * ''Ueber Temperaturänderungen in Künstlich auf- und Abbewegter Luft'', 1902. * ''Vorlesungen über Theorie der Wärme'' (as editor; 1903) – Hermann Helmholtz' lectures on the

theory of heat The history of thermodynamics is a fundamental strand in the history of physics, the history of chemistry, and the history of science in general. Owing to the relevance of thermodynamics in much of science and technology, its history is finely wo ...

. * ''Zur Erinnerung an Paul Drude zwei Ansprachen'' (with Walter König, 1906); In memory of

Paul Drude Paul Karl Ludwig Drude (; 12 July 1863 – 5 July 1906) was a German physicist specializing in optics. He wrote a fundamental textbook integrating optics with Maxwell's theories of electromagnetism. Education Born into an ethnic German family, D ...

; two speeches. * ''Anfangsgründe der Maxwellschen Theorie verknüpft mit der Elektronentheorie'', 1909 – The rudiments of

Maxwell's theory Maxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits. ...

combined with the electron theory.Most widely held works by Franz Richarz
WorldCat Identities

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richarz, Franz 1860 births 1920 deaths Scientists from Bonn Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Bonn alumni Academic staff of the University of Greifswald Academic staff of the University of Marburg 20th-century German physicists 19th-century German physicists