Carl Ludwig David Friedrich Heusler (1 February 1866,

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen (region), Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German-N ...

– 25 October 1947) was a German

mining engineer Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, open pit, above or on the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, and ...

and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

. He discovered a special group of

intermetallics An intermetallic (also called an intermetallic compound, intermetallic alloy, ordered intermetallic alloy, and a long-range-ordered alloy) is a type of metallic alloy that forms an ordered solid-state compound between two or more metallic elemen ...

now known as Heusler phases, which are ferromagnetic though the constituting elements are not ferromagnetic.

Biography

He was born as son of Conrad Heusler the owner of the Isabellenhütte

, a non-ferrous metal works. He studied at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

and

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

and was awarded with his Ph.D in 1887 in Berlin. After working at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

he did his habilitation in Berlin 1894. In 1901 he discovered the

ferromagnetic Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials (such as iron) which results in a large observed magnetic permeability, and in many cases a large magnetic coercivity allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagnetic materials ...

, now known as Heusler phases, and did some research in collaboration with 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 ...

. Due to patent controversies it took until 1903 for the publication of the results. From 1902 he was head of the Isabellenhütte.

References

* F. Heusler: Verh. Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft 5 (1903), S. 219 ff. *
100 Jahre „Heuslersche Legierungen“ from University of Marburg
1866 births 1947 deaths People from Dillenburg German mining engineers 19th-century German chemists University of Bonn alumni Engineers from Hesse 20th-century German chemists {{Germany-chemist-stub