Moritz Ludwig Frankenheim (29 June 1801 – 14 January 1869) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

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 ...

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

, and crystallographer.

Life and education

Moritz Ludwig Frankenheim was born in 1801 in Brunswick. His family was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Ismar Schorsch Ismar Schorsch (born November 3, 1935 in Hanover, Germany) is the Chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and the Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Professor of Jewish history.Hüngheim">alemannia-judaica to family Schorsch and the syna ...

, ''

Leopold Zunz Leopold Zunz ( he, יום טוב צונץ—''Yom Tov Tzuntz'', yi, ליפמן צונץ—''Lipmann Zunz''; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies (''Wissenschaft des Judentums''), the critical investigation ...

: Creativity in Adversity'', University of Pennsylvania Press (2016), p. 26 He attended the ''Gymnasium'' (high school) there and in

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...

. Afterwards he went to Berlin to attend the ''Alma Mater Berolinensis'' (today

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

) to study

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

. In 1823 he completed a dissertation titled ''Dissertatio de Theoria Gasorum et Vaporum Meditationes'' ("Contemplations on the scientific theory of gases and vapors"). Inspired by the research of his teacher

Christian Samuel Weiss Christian Samuel Weiss (26 February 1780 – 1 October 1856) was a German mineralogist born in Leipzig. Following graduation, he worked as a physics instructor in Leipzig from 1803 until 1808. and in the meantime, conducted geological studies of ...

(1780-1856), he became interested in

crystallography Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a fundamental subject in the fields of materials science and solid-state physics (condensed matter physics). The wor ...

. In 1827 he moved to the

University of Breslau A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

, where he was assistant professor of physics, geography, and mathematics from 1827 to 1850. In 1850 he was promoted to the position of professor of these subjects. After his

retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

, he first moved to

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and then to

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, where he died in 1869 at the age of 67.

Work

Frankenheim's focus of research was crystallography, particularly studies of

crystal structure In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of the ordered arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules in a crystal, crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from the intrinsic nature of the constituent particles to form symmetric pat ...

and the mathematical and theoretical basis of the

symmetry Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definit ...

crystals A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosc ...

. By 1826, he was already using the integer reciprocals of ''Weiss' coefficients'' (the intersection of a plane with the three crystallographic axes) to describe the spatial positions of crystal surfaces, from which the British crystallographer

William Hallowes Miller Prof William Hallowes Miller FRS HFRSE LLD DCL (6 April 180120 May 1880) was a Welsh mineralogist and laid the foundations of modern crystallography. Miller indices are named after him, the method having been described in his ''Treatise on Cry ...

(1801-1880) developed the concept of

Miller indices Miller indices form a notation system in crystallography for lattice planes in crystal (Bravais) lattices. In particular, a family of lattice planes of a given (direct) Bravais lattice is determined by three integers ''h'', ''k'', and ''� ...

in 1839. By assigning

symmetry element In chemistry and crystallography, a symmetry element is a point, line, or plane about which symmetry operations can take place. In particular, a symmetry element can be a mirror plane, an axis of rotation (either proper and improper), or a center of ...

s to the

crystal system In crystallography, a crystal system is a set of point groups (a group of geometric symmetries with at least one fixed point). A lattice system is a set of Bravais lattices. Space groups are classified into crystal systems according to their po ...

s defined previously by Weiss and

Friedrich Mohs Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs (; 29 January 1773 – 29 September 1839) was a German chemist and mineralogist. He was the creator of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Mohs also introduced a classification of the crystal forms in crystal syst ...

(1773-1839), Frankenheim was able, for the first time, to define 32

point groups In geometry, a point group is a mathematical group of symmetry operations (isometries in a Euclidean space) that have a fixed point in common. The coordinate origin of the Euclidean space is conventionally taken to be a fixed point, and every p ...

( crystal classes) and to classify them into four crystal systems (the regular one, the fourfold, the twofold and the sixfold). From his observations he derived 15 lattice types for crystals, which were later reduced by

Auguste Bravais Auguste Bravais (; 23 August 1811, Annonay, Ardèche – 30 March 1863, Le Chesnay, France) was a French physicist known for his work in crystallography, the conception of Bravais lattices, and the formulation of Bravais law. Bravais also studie ...

(1811-1863) to 14 and today as

Bravais lattices In geometry and crystallography, a Bravais lattice, named after , is an infinite array of discrete points generated by a set of Translation operator (quantum mechanics)#Discrete Translational Symmetry, discrete translation operations described in t ...

describe unit cells of

crystal structures A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosc ...

. Frankenheim conducted one of the first microscopic examinations of crystals in

polarized light Polarization (also polarisation) is a property applying to transverse waves that specifies the geometrical orientation of the oscillations. In a transverse wave, the direction of the oscillation is perpendicular to the direction of motion of the ...

, using the then-new

Nicol prism A Nicol prism is a type of polarizer, an optical device made from calcite crystal used to produce and analyse plane polarized light. It is made in such a way that it eliminates one of the rays by total internal reflection, i.e. the ordinary ray ...

as a

polarizer A polarizer or polariser is an optical filter that lets light waves of a specific polarization pass through while blocking light waves of other polarizations. It can filter a beam of light of undefined or mixed polarization into a beam of well ...

. In the field of geography, his most famous work is his book ''Völkerkunde'' ("Ethnology"), published in 1852.

Publications

*''Dissertatio de Theoria Gasorum et Vaporum Meditationes'' (Contemplations on the scientific theory of gases and vapors), Berlin 1823. *''Crystallonomische Aufsätze'' (Essays on crystallography),

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

, Vol. 19, pp
497–515542–565
Jena 1826. *''Populäre Astronomie'' (Popular Astronomy), Brunswick 1827. *''De Crystallorum Cohäsione'' (Cohesion of crystals), Breslau 1829. *''Die Lehre von der Cohäsion, umfassend die Elasticität der Gase, die Elasticität und Cohärenz der flüssigen und festen Körper und die Krystallkunde'' (Theory of cohesion, encompassing the elasticity of gases, the elasticity and coherence of liquids and solids, and crystallography), Breslau 1835. *''System der Krystalle'' (Crystal systems), Breslau 1842. *''Krystallisation und Amorphie'' (Crystallization and amorphicity), Breslau 1851. *''Völkerkunde'' (Ethnology), Breslau 1852. *''Ueber das Entstehen und das Wachsen der Krystalle nach mikroskopischen Beobachtungen'' (On microscopic observations of the emergence and growth of crystals), 1860. *''Zur Krystallkunde. I. Characteristiken der Krystalle.'' (On crystal structure. I. Characteristics of crystals.), Leipzig 1869.

References

* J. Lima-de-Faria (Ed.): ''Historical Atlas of Crystallography'', 1st Edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 1990, . * E. Scholz: ''Symmetrie, Gruppe, Dualität: Zur Beziehung zwischen theoretischer Mathematik und Anwendung in Kristallographie und Baustatik des 19. Jahrhunderts.'' (Symmetry, group, duality: On the relationship between theoretical mathematics and applications in crystallography and structural analysis in the 19th century.). In: ''Science Networks. Historical Studies'', Vol. 1, Birkhäuser, Basel 1989, . *

External links

The theory of cohesion
on minrec.org. {{DEFAULTSORT:Frankenheim, Moritz Ludwig 1801 births 1869 deaths Scientists from Braunschweig People from the Duchy of Brunswick 19th-century German Jews 19th-century German physicists