Karl Glitscher (1886 – 1945) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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 ...

who made contributions to

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...

Education

Glitscher studied under Arnold Sommerfeld at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. For his doctoral dissertation, Sommerfeld asked Glitscher to compare the relativistic theory of the

electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...

with Max Abraham's theory of the rigid electron relative to the fine structure of

spectral lines A spectral line is a dark or bright line in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum, resulting from emission or absorption of light in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies. Spectral lines are often used to iden ...

. Following a suggestion by

Wilhelm Lenz Wilhelm Lenz (February 8, 1888 in Frankfurt am Main – April 30, 1957 in Hamburg) was a German physicist, most notable for his invention of the Ising model and for his application of the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector to the old quantum mechanical ...

, a former student of Sommerfeld who received his doctorate in 1911, Glitscher was able to calculate the fine structure spectra and he found that the rigid electron was ruled out by Friedrich Paschen's data on one-electron atoms and the X-ray spectral doublets. Glitscher's theoretical calculations served as his doctoral thesis, and he was awarded his doctorate in 1917.

Career

Glitscher filed a patent in Germany in 1930 and in the United States in 1931 for an artificial horizon indicator for vehicles or similar platforms. The patent was assigned to Gesellschaft für elektrische Apparate mbH, in Marienfelde-Berlin. The Gesellschaft für elektrische Apparate (Gelap) was founded in 1920 to refine technical military equipment. Gelap evolved from the signals department of

Siemens & Halske Siemens & Halske AG (or Siemens-Halske) was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens. It was founded on 12 October 1847 as ''Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske'' by Werner von Siemens and Johann Ge ...

and produced communication and command systems for military organizations and commercial shipping.In 1933, Siemens Apparate und Maschinen GmbH (SAM) was formed by the merger of the Gesellschaft für elektrische Apparate (Gelap) and the Flugmotorenwerks der Siemens & Halske AG. SAM was involved in the manufacture of communications and precision mechanics products for the army, navy and merchant marine. SAM was dissolved after World War II. Se
Siemens
- Siemens Apparate und Maschinen GmbH.

Selected Literature

* Karl Glitscher ''Spektroskopischer Vergleich zwischen den Theorien des starren und des deformierbaren Elektrons'', ''Annalen der Physik'' 52 608–630 (1917) (abridged doctoral dissertation, University of Munich; received 14 May 1917, published in issue No.6 of 17 July 1917) as cited in Mehra, Volume 1, Part 2, 2001, p. 778.

Patents

*K. Glitscher US Patent 1,932,210, ''Indicator'' Berlin-Dauern, Germany, assigned to Gesellschaft für elektrische Apparate mbH, Marienfelde-Berlin, Germany. U.S. Application filed 19 September 1931, Serial Number 563,799, and in Germany 12 August 1930. (Google Patents, via scholar.google.com.)

References

* Jammer, Max ''The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics'' (McGraw-Hill, 1966) * Mehra, Jagdish, and

Helmut Rechenberg Helmut Rechenberg (born November 6, 1937, in Berlin; died November 10, 2016, in Munich) was a German physicist and science historian. Rechenberg studied mathematics, physics and astronomy at the University of Munich and graduated in 1964. At Mun ...

''The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 1 Part 1 The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld 1900–1925: Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties.'' (Springer, 2001) *Mehra, Jagdish, and Helmut Rechenberg ''The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 1 Part 2 The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld 1900–1925: Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties.'' (Springer, 2001)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glitscher, Karl 1886 births 20th-century German physicists 1945 deaths Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni