Johann Caspar Horner (

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

, 12 March 1774 – Zürich, 3 November 1834) was a

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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 ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

Life

At the beginning he wanted to be a priest, but later he went to

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, where he learnt astronomy. Then he traveled throughout the world for three years on behalf of the Russians. After the journey he took two years in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

with the cataloging the items he had found. He discovered a method for approaching the roots of equation with unknown factor in a higher power. His findings were published under the titles ''Über die Curven zweiten Grades'' and ''Die fünf regelmässigen Körper''. He wrote some other works also on the field of astronomy. In 1805 Johann Caspar Horner visited Japan with the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, as a scientist to the Krusenstern mission that also brought the Russian ambassador

Nikolai Rezanov Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov (russian: Николай Петрович Резанов) ( – ), a Russian nobleman and statesman, promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California to three successive Emperors of All Russia� ...

to Japan. Horner made a hot air balloon out of Japanese paper (

washi is traditional Japanese paper. The term is used to describe paper that uses local fiber, processed by hand and made in the traditional manner. ''Washi'' is made using fibers from the inner bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (''Ed ...

), and made a demonstration in front of about 30 Japanese delegates.Polak 2005, p.78 This followed the first flight of a

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries p ...

by the brothers

Montgolfier The Montgolfier brothers – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (; 26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (; 6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) – were aviation pioneers, balloonists and paper manufacturers from the commune An ...

in France in 1783.

Books and publications

* Otto von Kotzebue, Ivan Fedorovīch Kruzenshtern, Johann Caspar Horner, Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz, Adelbert von Chamisso (1821) ''A voyage of discovery into the South Sea and Beering's icStraits, for the purpose of exploring a north-east passage. undertaken in the years 1815-1818, at the expense of His Highness the chancellor of the empire, Count Romanzoff, in the ship Rurick, under the command of the lieutenant in the Russian Imperial Navy, Otto von Kotzebue.'' * Johann Caspar Horner (1822) ''Remarks on the specific gravity of sea-water in different latitudes, and on the temperature of the ocean at different depths'' * Elisabeth Schoeck-Grüebler, Johann Caspar Horner, Felix Donat Kyd (1831-1834) ''Der freundeidgenössische Rechenschieber : der Briefwechsel zwischen Felix Donat Kyd aus Brunnen und Hofrat Johann Caspar Horner aus Zürich'' * Jürgen W Koch; Johann Caspar Horner; Johann Georg Repsold, ''Der Briefwechsel zwischen Johann Caspar Horner und Johann Georg Repsold : kommentierte Übertragung der Brieftexte''

Notes

References

* Bokor József (szerk.). ''A Pallas nagy lexikona''. Arcanum: FolioNET Kft * Daum, Andreas W.: ''German Naturalists in the Pacific around 1800: Entanglement, Autonomy, and a Transnational Culture of Expertise.'' In: ''Explorations and Entanglements: Germans in Pacific Worlds from the Early Modern Period to World War I'', ed. Hartmut Berghoff et al.. New York, Berghahn Books, 2019, 70‒102. * Polak, Christian (2005) ''Sabre et pinceau, par d'autres Français au Japon. 1872-1960'', ''筆と刀・日本の中のもうひとつのフランス（１８７２－１９６０）'', (French and Japanese), Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Française du Japon, Hachette Fujingaho. 1774 births 1834 deaths 18th-century Swiss mathematicians 19th-century Swiss mathematicians 18th-century Swiss astronomers {{Switzerland-scientist-stub