Fritz Fischer (9 February 1898 – 28 December 1947) was a technical physicist, engineer and inventor. He was married to Maud Schätti.Borgnis, Fritz

In: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' 5 (1961), p. 185. Retrieved 2020-04-13.

Biography

Fritz Fischer was born on 9 February 1898 in

Oberdiessbach Oberdiessbach is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Bern-Mittelland (administrative district), Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 ...

. He studied electrical engineering at the

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

from 1917 till 1921 and graduated as Dr. sc. tech in 1924. Working at the ''Telephonwerke

Albisrieden Albisrieden is a quarter in the district 9 (Zürich), district 9 in Zürich. It was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Zürich in 1934. The quarter has a population of 17,226 distributed on an area of . Churche ...

'' he improved the transmission quality of speech, whereupon he was called to the central laboratories of the mother company

Siemens & Halske Siemens & Halske AG (or Siemens-Halske) was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens. It was founded on 12 October 1847 as ''Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske'' by Werner von Siemens and Johann Geor ...

in Berlin. There he built the first remotely controlled ships and airplanes and investigated the physical properties of colour film. Over 70 patent applications resulted from his work at Siemens. He was lecturer at the

Technische Hochschule A ''Technische Hochschule'' (, plural: ''Technische Hochschulen'', abbreviated ''TH'') is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands (), and Finland (, ) ...

in Charlottenburg (now

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

). 1932 he received a call to the ETH Zurich, where he became professor and founded the Institute of Technical Physics. He developed and patented the

Eidophor An Eidophor was a video projector developed in the 1940s, used to create theater-sized images from an analog video signal. The name Eidophor is derived from the Greek word-roots ''eido'' and ''phor'' meaning 'image' and 'bearer' (carrier). It ...

technique of displaying television pictures the size of cinema screens. Edgar Gretener, his chief assistant at the ETH, was project leader for the development of Eidophor. This project was transferred to a company founded by Gretener, which later became Gretag AG. After years of development, Eidophor achieved commercial success until

Liquid Crystal Display A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other Electro-optic modulator, electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liq ...

LCD (another invention with important Swiss contributorsWild, Peter J.
''Liquid Crystal Display Evolution. Swiss Contributions.''
/ref>) and Digital Light Processing DLP video projectors became available. Other early assistants at his Institute were

Hugo Thiemann Hugo Thiemann (2 February 1917 – 10 June 2012) was a Swiss R&D manager and visionary. He was a founding member of the ''Club of Rome''. Life Hugo Ernst Thiemann was born in Heiden, Switzerland, then educated in nearby St. Gallen, Switzerlan ...

(founding member of the

Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing list of global issues, global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in R ...

Gustav Guanella Gustav Guanella (21 June 1909 – 12 January 1982) was a Swiss inventor who held numerous patents. Life Guanella was born in Chur, then educated in Lucerne, Switzerland. He finished high school in 1929, studied electrical engineering at the Swi ...

, Werner Lindecker and Erna Hamburger, who became famous on their own. Fritz Fischer was one of the important technical scientists of his day. He was co-founder together with Max Lattmann, his first Ph.D. graduate, of Contraves AG, a Swiss defence and aerospace company, now part of

Rheinmetall Rheinmetall AG () is a German automotive and arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was promoted to the DAX, Germany's leading stock market index, in March 2023. It is the largest German and fifth largest Europe ...

Air Defence AG, Zürich. Fischer died on 28 December 1947 in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, at the age of 49.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Fritz 1898 births 1947 deaths People from the canton of Bern 20th-century Swiss physicists Academic staff of ETH Zurich ETH Zurich alumni 20th-century Swiss inventors 20th-century Swiss engineers