Ole Jacob Broch (14 January 1818 – 5 February 1889) was a
Norwegian mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
O ...
,
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 ...
,
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
and government minister.
Biography
Broch was born at
Fredrikstad
Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad.
The city of Fredrikstad was founded in ...
in
Østfold, Norway. He was the son of war commissary Johan Jørgen Broch (1791–1860) and Jensine Laurentze Bentzen (1790–1877) and the brother of the orientalist and linguist,
Jens Peter Broch.
[ He attended ]Kristiansand Cathedral School
Kristiansand Cathedral School (''Kristiansand katedralskole Gimle''), known in Latin as ''Schola Christiansandensis'', is a high school in Kristiansand, Agder, Norway. It is the oldest high school on the southern coast of Norway, having been fo ...
and showed a talent for mathematics at an early age. He attended the Overlærer Møller Institute in Christiania (now Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
) and later studied at the University of Christiania (now University of Oslo
The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...
). He also traveled abroad for studies in Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, Berlin and Königsberg, during which he developed an interest in optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...
and statistics
Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industri ...
.[
After returning to Norway, he worked with his friend and colleague ]Hartvig Nissen
Ole Hartvig Nissen (17 April 1815 – 4 February 1874) was a Norwegian philologist and educator. He founded Nissen's Girls' School in Christiania in 1849. In 1865 he became director-general in the Ministry of Education, while remaining one of t ...
to found the school Hartvig Nissens skole in 1843, which were to have an emphasis on natural sciences and modern languages.[ After finishing his doctorate in 1847, he returned to a position at the University that he had resigned to work with Nissen.][ He also taught at the ]Military Academy
A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...
, and in 1847 he founded the insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
company Gjensidige (under the name "Christiania almindelige, gjensidige Forsørgelsesanstalt"),[ which was ]Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swed ...
's first life insurance
Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the dea ...
company.[
Broch entered politics as a local politician in Christiania, and in the period 1862–69 he represented the city in the ]Storting
The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years base ...
.[ In 1869, he was appointed Minister of the Navy in the first cabinet of ]Frederik Stang
Frederik Stang (4 March 1808 – 8 June 1884) was a Norwegian lawyer, public servant, and politician who served as Norway's 1st prime minister in Christiana.
Stang was born on the Nordre Rostad farm at Stokke in Vestfold, Norway. He was the so ...
. After serving as a member of the Council of State Division in Stockholm
Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropolita ...
in 1871–72, he returned as Minister of the Navy briefly in 1872.[ He resigned over differences with his colleagues about government ministers' access to the parliament.][
After this his attention turned to international tasks. In 1879 he became a member, and in 1883 director of the ]International Bureau of Weights and Measures
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (french: Bureau international des poids et mesures, BIPM) is an intergovernmental organisation, through which its 59 member-states act together on measurement standards in four areas: chemistry, ...
in Sèvres
Sèvres (, ) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a population of 23,251 as of 2018, is known for it ...
, France.[ This work took up much of the remainder of Broch's life, but in 1884 he was recalled to Norway to attempt to form a government. The constitutional crisis which caused the fall of the so-called '' April Ministerium'' of Christian Homann Schweigaard, led to the demand for a new prime minister. Broch failed in this attempt, and returned to France, where he died a few years later. He was buried at Var Frelsers gravlund in Oslo.][
]
Honors
Broch received several honours for his scientific and political work. He was a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters ( da, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab, DKNVS) is a Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The ...
from 1849, and he received the Grand Cross
Grand Cross is the highest class in many orders, and manifested in its insignia. Exceptionally, the highest class may be referred to as Grand Cordon or equivalent. In other cases, there may exist a rank even higher than Grand Cross, e.g. Gra ...
of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
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in 1879.[
Internationally, he was created grand officer of the French '']Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
'', and Commander Grand Cross of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star
The Royal Order of the Polar Star ( Swedish: ''Kungliga Nordstjärneorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim.
The Order of th ...
.[
Brochøya, an island off the north coast of ]Nordaustlandet
Nordaustlandet (sometimes translated as North East Land) is the second-largest island in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, with an area of . It lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by Hinlopen Strait. Much of Nordaustlandet lies under l ...
in Svalbard
Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group rang ...
, was named after him.
Selected works
*''Lehrbuch der Mechanik'', 1854
*''Laerebog i Arithmetik og Algebraens Elementer'', 1860
*''Logarithme-Tabel med 5 Decimale'', 1865
*''Traité Élémentaire des Fonctions Elliptiques'', 1867
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broch, Ole Jacob
1818 births
1889 deaths
People from Fredrikstad
People educated at Kristiansand Cathedral School
University of Oslo alumni
Norwegian mathematicians
Norwegian educators
Norwegian physicists
Norwegian economists
Members of the Storting
Government ministers of Norway
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
Commanders Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star
Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal
Norwegian Military Academy faculty
Burials at the Cemetery of Our Saviour