Ernst Lecher (1 June 1856 – 19 July 1926) was an Austrian physicist who, from 1909, was head of the ''First Institute of Physics'' in

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. ...

. He is remembered for developing an apparatus— "

Lecher lines Lecher may refer to: People * Dr. Berek Lajcher (also spelled Lecher, 1893–1943), Jewish physician and Holocaust resistance leader * Ernst Lecher (1856–1926), Austrian physicist * Ernst Bacon Ernst Lecher Bacon (May 26, 1898 – March 16 ...

"—to measure the

wavelength In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same ''phase (waves ...

and

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...

electromagnetic wave In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is a self-propagating wave of the electromagnetic field that carries momentum and radiant energy through space. It encompasses a broad spectrum, classified by frequency or its inverse, wavelength, ...

s. He gave his name to the Ernst-Lecher-Institut, a

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

research establishment set up in the 1940s in Reichenau, south of Vienna, which is now a part of the German research institute

Max Planck Institute The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

. Lecher's father, Zacharias K Lecher, was editor of Vienna's leading daily newspaper, ''Die Presse'', and helped to publicise the discovery of

X-rays An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

of his

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

colleague

Wilhelm Röntgen Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (; 27 March 1845 – 10 February 1923), sometimes Transliteration, transliterated as Roentgen ( ), was a German physicist who produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays. As ...

in 1896. Lecher's nephew, Konrad Zacharias Lorenz, won the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

in 1973.John R. Krebs, Sverre Sjölander, ''Konrad Z. Lorenz For. Mem. R.S.(1903-1989)'', Konrad Lorenz Institute for Research on Evolution and Cognitio

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Publications

* ''Studie über elektr. Resonanzerscheinungen'', 1890 * ''Lehrbuch der Physik für Mediziner und Biologen'', 1912

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lecher, Ernst 1856 births 1926 deaths Austrian physicists Scientists from Vienna Burials at Döbling Cemetery Physicists from Austria-Hungary