Alexander Behm (11 November 1880, in
Sternberg (
Mecklenburg) – 22 January 1952, in
Tarp (
Schleswig-Flensburg)) 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 ...
who developed working
ocean echo sounder in Germany at the same time
Reginald Fessenden was doing so in North America.
As head of a research laboratory in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
(
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
) he conducted experiments concerning the propagation of
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...
. He tried to develop an
iceberg detection system using reflected sound waves after the
Titanic disaster on 15 April 1912. In the end reflected sound waves proved not to be suitable for the detection of icebergs but for measuring the depth of the sea, because the bottom of the sea reflected them well. Thus, echo sounding was born.
Behm was granted German
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
No. 282009 for the invention of
echo sounding ''(device for measuring depths of the sea and distances and headings of ships or obstacles by means of reflected sound waves)'' on 22 July 1913.
In 1920 he founded the ''Behm Echo Sounding Company'' in
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
in order to commercialise his invention. He was also a fanatic
angler and an inventor of
fishing tackle, like Behm-Fliege and Behm-Blinker.
See also
*
German inventors and discoverers
References
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Behm, Alexander
1880 births
1967 deaths
People from Ludwigslust-Parchim
People from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
20th-century Austrian physicists