Eduard Rüchardt (March 29, 1888 – March 7, 1962) was a German physicist. In modern times Rüchardt is mainly noted for the experiment named after him. However, Rüchardt's chief topic was the study of

canal rays An anode ray (also positive ray or canal ray) is a beam of positive ions that is created by certain types of gas-discharge tubes. They were first observed in Crookes tubes during experiments by the German scientist Eugen Goldstein, in 1886. La ...

. This work started under the supervision of

Wilhelm Wien Wilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien (; 13 January 1864 – 30 August 1928) was a German physicist who used theories about heat and electromagnetism to deduce Wien's displacement law, which calculates the emission of a blackbody at any te ...

and continued later in collaborations with

Walther Gerlach Walther Gerlach (1 August 1889 – 10 August 1979) was a German physicist who co-discovered, through laboratory experiment, spin quantization in a magnetic field, the Stern–Gerlach effect. The experiment was conceived by Otto Stern in 1921 an ...

Life and work

After home-schooling in Moscow, Rüchardt visited the Vitztumsche secondary school in Dresden from 1905 on. He started studying physics in Jena in 1908 and continued in Freiburg and Wuerzburg in 1910. There he worked towards his doctor's degree under

. The topic of his thesis was "Excitation of phosphorescence through

". In 1920 Rüchardt followed Wien to the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

to be his assistant. In 1922 he published "processes of charge reversal in hydrogen

" to gain his professorship. There he taught as an associate professor from 1924 to 1946 and from 1946 to 1955 as a tenured professor. Rüchardt's chief topic under Wien was about the physics of canal rays. For the first time the problem of light excitation of phosphors by solid canal rays was observed by energy considerations. Besides the processes of charge reversal in hydrogen canal rays, Rüchardt examined the correlation of neutralization and coverage for secondary radiation canal rays and α-rays. With the interaction of matter with canal rays Rüchardt was able to formulate extensive statements on the construction and properties of atoms. This way he succeeded in finding definite evidence of oxygen isotope 18O. In the 1930s many dissertations supervised by Rüchardt discussed canal rays. The research included Einstein's rotating mirror experiment (Spiegel-drehversuch) and the Transverse Doppler effect. The work done with

in 1926 received particular acclaim. The great wars greatly influenced his academic focus. He developed specific amplifier valves in World War I. During World War II Rüchardt researched the mode of operation for electrical contacts. These last works shifted to his focus of his research after 1945. It ranged from works (with numerous scholars) on dependency of resistance of contact load up to superconduction of contacts.

Legacy and Notability

Rüchardt was instrumental in the exposure of the fraudulent results presented by

Emil Rupp Philipp Heinrich Emil Rupp (1 July 1898 – 10 April 1979) was a German physicist, regarded by many as a respectable and important experimentalist in the late 1920s.Jeroen van Dongen: Emil Rupp, Albert Einstein and the Canal Ray Experiments on Wav ...

. He wrote an abstract for the ''Physikalische Berichte'' that pointed out that Rupp's vacuum pump appeared in the wrong location. From this he showed that obtaining the kind of freely decaying atoms that Rupp had claimed to do in his experiments would have been impossible. In 1935, following Rupp's fall from grace and in the midst of the controversy over what elements of his work could be trusted, Rüchardt and

published a short note in the ''Annalen der Physik'' in which they made very clear that Rupp had confirmed a mistakenly drawn diagram by

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

. This is generally considered to be the point when Rupp lost all credibility. Rüchardt's lectures about "Higher Experimental Physics" were exemplary. The experiments demonstrated in the lecture were revised and modernized constantly. He successfully strove for accurate depictions of modern physics in popular culture, as well as the introduction of physical evidence and scientific methods in medicine. The Rüchardt experiment was developed over the years in his lectures. It is now performed as a standard experiment for thermodynamics in several universities, such as

UBC The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

Works and Literature

*Weitere W Durchgang v. Kanalstrahlen durch Materie, in: Hdb. d. Physik, hg. v. H. Geiger u. K. Scheel, 21933, XXII/2, S. 75–154; Sichtbares u. unsichtbares Licht, 1938 (Neudr. 1952, auch span., engl., poln. u. ungar. Übers.). * E. Kappler, in: Physikal. Bll. 4, 1948, S. 211; W. Gerlach, ebd. 14, 1958, S. 129; ders., in: Jb. d. Bayer. Ak. d. Wiss. 1962, S. 189-95 (P); J. Brandmüller. Das wiss. Werk v. E. R., in: Dt. Mus. München, Wiss. Jb. 1991, S. 7-24 (W-Verz., P); Pogg. VI, VII a.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruchardt, Eduard 1888 births 1962 deaths German nuclear physicists Mass spectrometrists Soviet physicists