Johann Heinrich Jakob Müller (30 April 1809, Kassel,

Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a kingdom in Germany, with a population of 2.6 million, that existed from 1807 to 1813. It included territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the ...

– 3 October 1875, Freiburg im Breisgau) 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 ...

Biography

From 1829 he studied mathematics and physics 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 ...

, where one of his instructors was

Julius Plücker Julius Plücker (16 June 1801 – 22 May 1868) was a German mathematician and physicist. He made fundamental contributions to the field of analytical geometry and was a pioneer in the investigations of cathode rays that led eventually to the dis ...

, then continued his education at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...

as a student of Justus von Liebig. In 1834 he became a teacher at the Darmstadt gymnasium, and in 1837 returned to Giessen as an instructor at the ''Realschule''. In 1844 he was appointed professor of physics and technology at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemb ...

, a position he maintained up until his death in 1875.Müller, Johann Heinrich
Deutsche Biographie He conducted research on

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...

galvanism Galvanism is a term invented by the late 18th-century physicist and chemist Alessandro Volta to refer to the generation of electric current by chemical action. The term also came to refer to the discoveries of its namesake, Luigi Galvani, specif ...

and magnetism, as well as studies of light and

heat radiation Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation generated by the thermal motion of particles in matter. Thermal radiation is generated when heat from the movement of charges in the material (electrons and protons in common forms of matter) is ...

. Beginning in 1846 he performed analysis of

Fraunhofer lines In physics and optics, the Fraunhofer lines are a set of spectral absorption lines named after the German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787–1826). The lines were originally observed as dark features (absorption lines) in the optical spectru ...

Works

His principal work, "''Lehrbuch der Physik und Meteorologie''" (2 volumes, Braunschweig, 1842; 7th edition, 1868–69), was originally a version of

Claude Pouillet Claude Servais Mathias Pouillet (16 February 1790 – 14 June 1868) was a French physicist and a professor of physics at the Sorbonne and member of the French Academy of Sciences (elected 1837). Biography He studied sciences at the École n ...

's "''Éléments de physique expérimentale et de météorologie''"; and he published a supplement to it, "''Lehrbuch der kosmischen Physik''" (1856; 3rd edition, 1872).Johann Heinrich Jacob Müller
de.Wikisource Later on, Leopold Pfaundler published an enlarged 9th edition, titled "''Müller-Pouillet's Lehrbuch der physik und meteorologie''" (1886–98, 3 volumes). Among his other works are: * ''Grundriss der Physik und Meteorologie'' (1846; 10th edition, 1869–70; with two supplements); later translated in English and published as "Principles of Physics and Meteorology" (Hippolyte Bailliere, London 1847; Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia 1848).Principles of physics and meteorology
OCLC WorldCat * ''Grundzüge der Krystallographie'' (1845; 2nd edition, 1869). * ''Anfangsgründe der geometrischen Disciplin für Gymnasien'', &c. (3rd edition, 1869).

References

* 1809 births 1875 deaths Scientists from Kassel People from the Kingdom of Westphalia 19th-century German physicists Academic staff of the University of Freiburg {{Germany-physicist-stub