Frederik Gottlieb Edvard Jünger (19 April 1823 – 21 October 1899) was a Danish precision mechanic and instrument maker. His company was taken over by Christopher Peter Jürgensen in 1869. In the 1870s and early 1880s, he was the manager of Holmegaard Glass Factory near

Næstved Næstved () is a town in Næstved Municipality, the municipality of the same name, located in the southern part of the island of Zealand (Denmark), Zealand in Denmark. Næstved has several adult education centers, five Primary education, elemen ...

Early life and education

Jünger was born in

Holbæk Holbæk () is a town in Denmark and the County seat, seat of Holbæk municipality with a population of 30,903 (1 January 2025).Bregentved estate. He was, however, interested in the technical sciences and his talent for mechanics caught the attention of

Hans Christian Ørsted Hans Christian Ørsted (; 14 August 1777 – 9 March 1851), sometimes Transliteration, transliterated as Oersted ( ), was a Danish chemist and physicist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields. This phenomenon is known as ...

. Ørsted helped him obtain a grant from count F. M. Knuth which enabled him to enroll at the College of Advanced Technology. His education also brought him to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

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. ...

Career

Back in Denmark, he settled as an instrument maker in Copenhagen in 1852. He produced technical instruments for the College of Advanced Technology and

Sorø Academy Sorø Academy ( Danish: ''Sorø Akademi'') is a boarding school and gymnasium located in the small town of Sorø, Denmark. It traces its history back to the 12th century when Bishop Absalon founded a monastery at the site, which was confiscated by ...

as well as distance measurement devices for the Danish army and navy and had also many customers abroad. Júrger lived on Sortedam Dossering No. 37 and worked out of his basement. He was involved in the development of the

Hansen Writing Ball The Hansen Writing Ball is an early typewriter. It was invented in 1865 and patented and put into production in 1870, and was the first commercially produced typewriter. Design The writing ball (Danish: ''skrivekugle'') was invented in 1865 ...

in 1865. He spent several years working on an

equatorial mount An equatorial mount is a mount for instruments that compensates for Earth's rotation by having one rotational axis, called ''polar axis'', parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used for astronomical telescope mount, tel ...

for

Østervold Observatory Østervold Observatory (or Copenhagen University Observatory; ) is a former astronomical observatory ( IAU code 035) in Copenhagen, Denmark owned and operated by the University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet). It opened in 1861 as a repla ...

and later a similar instrument for

Lund Observatory Lund Observatory was the official English name for the astronomy department at Lund University, and is currently used as a network of researchers within astronomy or other space related research projects, administered by the Department of Physics ...

in Sweden. In 1867, he was appointed to university mechanic (''universitetsmekanikus'') at

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

and the following year he received the title of professor.

Late life

Jünger's work compromised his vision and in 1869 he ceded his company to his employee Christopher Peter Jürgensen. He went abroad in 1869 and settled on a country estate in

Steiermark Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and clockwise, from the southwest, ...

. In 1873, he received an offer to take over the management of the Holmegaard Glass Factory and returned to Denmark, where he ran the company for 11 years. He spent his last years in Copenhagen and is buried at Solbjerg Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jurger, Edvard Danish scientific instrument makers People from Holbæk Municipality 1823 births 1899 deaths