Peter Salcher (Kreuzen, 10 August 1848 — Sušak, today part of

Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

, 4 October 1928) was an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

and Croatian

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 ...

Biography

He studied physics at the

University of Graz The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria. History The unive ...

, where he received his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1872. After doctorate, he worked at the

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

, then in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

, and in 1875 he came to the Imperial and Royal Naval Academy in

for professors of physics and mechanics and leader physics laboratory; From 1880 he has also run a meteorological station. Rijeka Academy then was one of the top higher education and research institutions of Austria-Hungary, with carefully selected staff and excellently equipped. During his tenure at the Academy, one of Salcher's students was

Georg von Trapp Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp (4 April 1880 – 30 May 1947) was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy who later became the patriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. Trapp was the most successful Austro-Hungarian submarine commander of World W ...

, one of the most highly decorated officers of the

Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (german: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', hu, Császári és Királyi Haditengerészet) was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the A ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and patriarch of the

Trapp Family singers The Trapp Family (also known as the von Trapp Family) were a singing group formed from the family of former Austrian naval commander Georg von Trapp. The family achieved fame in their original singing career in their native Austria during the in ...

, inspiration for the movie

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. Se ...

. At the request of

Ernst Mach Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( , ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a Moravian-born Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the physics of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach ...

, who has not managed to experimentally prove his shockwave theory, Salcher and his assistant Sandor Riegler, who was then a professor of

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

and physics at the Rijeka Higher Commercial School, conceived in 1886 an experiment where he managed to record the flight of a projectile shot from a firearm for the first time in history using a specially devised ultra-fast photography technique. The recording was done using a method invented in 1859-64 by August Toepler, Salcher's professor from

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

. The short exposure was achieved using an electric spark, and a total of 80 shots were recorded. Salcher, in collaboration with

, published the results of this experiment in the 1887 paper ''Photographic recording of phenomena caused by the flight of projectiles through the air'' (''Photographische Fixirung der durch Projectile in der Luft eingeleiteten Vorgänge''). HDA 782 Salcher X-ray 006

Further, developing his ideas Salcher continued with his experiments and in 1887, in collaboration with John Whitehead ( Robert Whitehead's son) he photographed the superficial occurrences of air leakage from high pressure tanks in the Rijeka torpedo factory. Today, it is considered that these experiments were a major breakthrough in the development of modern aerodynamic tunnels testing. One month after the first Röntgen trial in 1896, Salcher demonstrated the use of X-ray in a public lecture in

. Soon after that, the

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

device began to be used at the Rijeka City Hospital. Salcher was one of the most prominent figures in Rijeka's scientific and cultural life, a lecturer and author of textbooks, scientific and popular articles, an active member of the Rijeka Natural Science Club and a prominent

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

. He died in Rijeka in 1928.

References

External links

Salcher, Peter , Hrvatska enciklopedija

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salcher, Peter Austrian inventors Austrian physicists Croatian inventors Croatian physicists 1848 births 1928 deaths

Biography

See also

References

External links