Heinrich Mache (27 April 1876 – 1 September 1954) was an Austrian physicist. He won the
Haitinger Prize of the
Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1915.
Life
Born in Prague, after his secondary school studies, Mache completed the first year of physics in Prague, among other things, heard lectures by
Ernst Mach and in 1894 moved with his family to Vienna, where he continued his studies with
Franz Serafin Exner and continued with
Ludwig Boltzmann
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of ther ...
. He received his doctorate in 1898 working under Exner on the "experimental proof of electrostriction in gases" and worked as a photographic expert during 1900/1901 and participated in the astronomical expedition for the
Vienna Academy
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria.
History
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...
to India. In connection with his research he conducted air electrical measurements on the Red Sea, in Delhi, Ceylon and Upper Egypt. In 1901 he
habilitated at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
. In 1906 he was appointed associate professor at the
University of Innsbruck
The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck; la, Universitas Leopoldino Franciscea) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. ...
, which he left after two years in order accept the position as a professor at the
Technical University Vienna
TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...
. He was the successor of
Friedrich Hasenöhrl
Friedrich Hasenöhrl (; 30 November 1874 – 7 October 1915) was an Austrian physicist.
Life
Friedrich Hasenöhrl was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary in 1874. His father was a lawyer and his mother belonged to a prominent aristocratic family. A ...
. He died in Vienna.
Noteworthy relatives
His wife was the granddaughter of the great geologist
Eduard Suess
Eduard Suess (; 20 August 1831 - 26 April 1914) was an Austrian geologist and an expert on the geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising two major former geographical features, the supercontinent Gondwana (proposed in 1861) and t ...
.
Tributes and memorials
In 1966 in
Donau City (22nd District), Vienna, the Makegasse (Mache Alley) was named in his honor.
Research, interests and achievements
His research was mainly
radioactivity,
thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of th ...
,
atmospheric electricity
Atmospheric electricity is the study of electrical charges in the Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet). The movement of charge between the Earth's surface, the atmosphere, and the ionosphere is known as the global atmospheric electr ...
, and the physics of combustion phenomena. He developed with
Ludwig Flamm a theory of combustion of explosive gas mixtures. Due to his work with
radon
Radon is a chemical element with the symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colourless, odourless, tasteless noble gas. It occurs naturally in minute quantities as an intermediate step in the normal radioactive decay chains through ...
, the now unusual unit
Mache
Mache may refer to:
Food
* ''Mâche'', French name of the edible salad green ''Valerianella locusta'', also known as corn salad and lamb's lettuce
* Mache (food), Filipino rice flour balls flavored with pandan
People
* Heinrich Mache, Austrian ...
was named for describing the activity of radioactive medicinal waters.
*
Wilhelm Exner Medal The Wilhelm Exner Medal has been awarded by the Austrian Industry Association, (ÖGV), for excellence in research and science since 1921.
The medal is dedicated to Wilhelm Exner (1840–1931), former president of the Association, who initialize ...
, 1927
Mache unit
The
Mache
Mache may refer to:
Food
* ''Mâche'', French name of the edible salad green ''Valerianella locusta'', also known as corn salad and lamb's lettuce
* Mache (food), Filipino rice flour balls flavored with pandan
People
* Heinrich Mache, Austrian ...
is the amount of
radon
Radon is a chemical element with the symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colourless, odourless, tasteless noble gas. It occurs naturally in minute quantities as an intermediate step in the normal radioactive decay chains through ...
in one
liter that will produce a saturation current of 0.001
electrostatic unit (ESU) of current and is equivalent to 364
p Ci L
−1.
The eman (emanation) unit, used in the 1920s and 1930s, is equivalent to 100
p Ci L
−1.
References
Further reading
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mache, Heinrich
1876 births
1954 deaths
Austrian physicists
University of Vienna alumni
Academic staff of the University of Innsbruck
Academic staff of TU Wien
Scientists from Prague