Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann (; 2 October 1826 – 24 March 1899) 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 cau ...
and scientific author.
Life
Wiedemann was born in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
the son of a merchant who died two years later. Following the death of his mother in 1842 he lived with his grandparents.
After attending a private school as well as the Cölnische Humanistische
Gymnasium, he entered the
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 ...
in 1844 where took his doctor's degree three years later under the supervision of
Heinrich Gustav Magnus
Heinrich Gustav Magnus (; 2 May 1802 – 4 April 1870) was a notable German experimental scientist. His training was mostly in chemistry but his later research was mostly in physics. He spent the great bulk of his career at the University of Ber ...
. His thesis on that occasion was devoted to a question in
organic chemistry
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, ...
, for he held the opinion that the study of
chemistry is an indispensable preliminary to the pursuit of
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
, which was his ultimate aim. In Berlin he made the acquaintance of
Hermann von Helmholtz
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Associatio ...
at the house of Heinrich Gustav Magnus and was one of the founders of the
Berlin Physical Society.
In 1854 he left Germany to take on the role of Professor of Physics in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, nine years later he moved to
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...
and in 1866 to
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
. In 1871 he accepted the chair of
physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistica ...
at
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
. The attention he had paid to chemistry in the earlier part of his career enabled him to hold his own in this position, but he found his work more congenial when in 1887 he was transferred to the professorship of physics. With
Rudolph Franz, Wiedemann developed the
Wiedemann–Franz law In physics, the Wiedemann–Franz law states that the ratio of the electronic contribution of the thermal conductivity (''κ'') to the electrical conductivity (''σ'') of a metal is proportional to the temperature (''T'').
: \frac \kapp ...
relating thermal and electrical conductivity in 1853.
August Hagenbach was one of his students in Leipzig.
He died in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
on 24 March 1899.
Literary work
His name is probably most widely known for his literary work. In 1877 he undertook the editorship of the ''
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 mathe ...
'' in succession to
Johann Christian Poggendorff
Johann Christian Poggendorff (29 December 1796 – 24 January 1877), was a German physicist born in Hamburg. By far the greater and more important part of his work related to electricity and magnetism. Poggendorff is known for his electrostatic ...
, thus starting the series of that scientific periodical which is familiarly cited as ''Wied. Ann.'' Another monumental work for which he was responsible was ''Die Lehre van der Elektricitat'', or, as it was called in the first instance, ''Lehre von Galvanismus und Elektromagnetismus'', a book that is unsurpassed for accuracy and comprehensiveness. He produced the first edition in 1861, and a fourth, revised and enlarged, was only completed a short time before his death.
Scientific research
But his original work was also important. His data for the
thermal conductivity
The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa.
Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low thermal conductivity than in materials of high thermal ...
of various metals were for long the most trustworthy at the disposal of physicists, and his determination of the
ohm
Ohm (symbol Ω) is a unit of electrical resistance named after Georg Ohm.
Ohm or OHM may also refer to:
People
* Georg Ohm (1789–1854), German physicist and namesake of the term ''ohm''
* Germán Ohm (born 1936), Mexican boxer
* Jörg Ohm (b ...
in terms of the specific resistance of
mercury showed remarkable skill in quantitative research. He carried out a number of magnetic investigations which resulted in the discovery of many interesting phenomena, some of which have been rediscovered by others; they related among other things to the effect of mechanical strain on the magnetic properties of the magnetic metals, to the relation between the chemical composition of compound bodies and their magnetic properties, and to a curious parallelism between the laws of
torsion
Torsion may refer to:
Science
* Torsion (mechanics), the twisting of an object due to an applied torque
* Torsion of spacetime, the field used in Einstein–Cartan theory and
** Alternatives to general relativity
* Torsion angle, in chemistry
Bi ...
and of
magnetism (see
Wiedemann effect). He also investigated electrical
endosmosis
Osmosis (, ) is the spontaneous net movement or diffusion of solvent molecules through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of high water potential (region of lower solute concentration) to a region of low water potential (region o ...
and the electrical resistance of
electrolytes.
Family
In 1851 he married Clara Mitscherlich.
Their eldest son,
Eilhard Ernst Gustav, born in Berlin on 1 August 1852, became professor of physics at
Erlangen
Erlangen (; East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 116,062 inhab ...
in 1886, and his younger son, Alfred, born in Berlin on 18 July 1856, was appointed to the extraordinary professorship of
Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...
at Bonn in 1892.
References
Attribution:
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Works
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiedemann, Gustav Heinrich
1826 births
1899 deaths
19th-century German physicists
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
German physical chemists
Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala