Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz (; also Emil Khristianovich Lenz; ; 12 February 1804 – 10 February 1865), usually cited as Emil Lenz
[ or Heinrich Lenz in some countries, was an Estonian ]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 cau ...
who is most noted for formulating Lenz's law
Lenz's law states that the direction of the electric current Electromagnetic induction, induced in a Electrical conductor, conductor by a changing magnetic field is such that the magnetic field created by the induced current opposes changes in t ...
in electrodynamics in 1834.
Biography
Lenz was born in Dorpat
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...
(nowadays Tartu, Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
), at that time in the Governorate of Livonia
The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, Baltic Governorate-General until 1876. Governorate of Livonia bordered Governorate of E ...
in the Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
. After completing his secondary education in 1820, Lenz studied chemistry and physics at the University of Dorpat.Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue (; 30 December 1787 – 15 February 1846) was a Baltic German naval officer in the Imperial Russian Navy. He commanded two naval expeditions into the Pacific for the purposes of exploration and scientific investigation. The fi ...
on his third expedition around the world from 1823 to 1826. On the voyage Lenz studied climatic conditions and the physical properties of seawater. The results were published in "Memoirs of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences" (1831).
After the voyage, Lenz began working at the University of St. Petersburg, Russia, where he later served as the Dean of Mathematics and Physics from 1840 to 1863 and was Rector from 1863 until his death in 1865. Lenz also taught at the Petrischule
Saint Peter's School (, ), often referred to as Petrischule (the German transliteration of its Russian name) is a secondary school in St. Petersburg. It is one of the oldest educational institutions in Russia, having been founded in 1709.
His ...
in 1830 and 1831, and at the Mikhailovskaya Artillery Academy.
Lenz had begun studying electromagnetism
In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...
in 1831. Besides the law named in his honor, Lenz also independently discovered Joule's law Joule effect and Joule's law are any of several different physical effects discovered or characterized by English physicist James Prescott Joule. These physical effects are not the same, but all are frequently or occasionally referred to in the lite ...
in 1842; to honor his efforts on the problem, it is also given the name the "Joule–Lenz law," named also for James Prescott Joule
James Prescott Joule (; 24 December 1818 11 October 1889) was an English physicist. Joule studied the nature of heat and discovered its relationship to mechanical work. This led to the law of conservation of energy, which in turn led to the ...
.
Lenz eagerly participated in development of the electroplating
Electroplating, also known as electrochemical deposition or electrodeposition, is a process for producing a metal coating on a solid substrate through the redox, reduction of cations of that metal by means of a direct current, direct electric cur ...
technology, invented by his friend and colleague Moritz von Jacobi. In 1839, Lenz produced several medallions using electrotyping
Electrotyping (also galvanoplasty) is a chemical method for forming metal parts that exactly reproduce a model. The method was invented by a Prussian engineer Moritz von Jacobi in Russia in 1838, and was immediately adopted for applications in ...
. Along with the electrotyped relief produced by Jacobi the same year, these were the first instances of galvanoplastic sculpture.History of electroplating in the 19th century Russia
Lenz died in Rome, after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage.
A lunar
crater
A crater is a landform consisting of a hole or depression (geology), depression on a planetary surface, usually caused either by an object hitting the surface, or by geological activity on the planet. A crater has classically been described ...
on the far side of the Moon is named after him.
See also
*
List of Baltic German scientists
References
External links
Page on Lenz from a list of famous electroscientistsBiography of Lenz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenz, Heinrich
1804 births
1865 deaths
Scientists from Tartu
People from Kreis Dorpat
Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire
Physicists from the Russian Empire
Electrical engineers from the Russian Empire
People associated with electricity
University of Tartu alumni
Academic staff of Military Engineering-Technical University
Rectors of Saint Petersburg State University
Rectors of universities in the Russian Empire
Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences