Gustav Heinrich Johann Apollon Tammann ( – 17 December 1938) was a prominent

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

chemist-physicist who made important contributions in the fields of glassy and

solid solution A solid solution, a term popularly used for metals, is a homogeneous mixture of two compounds in solid state and having a single crystal structure. Many examples can be found in metallurgy, geology, and solid-state chemistry. The word "solutio ...

s, heterogeneous equilibria, crystallization, and

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

. He first predicted the

order-disorder transition In physics, the terms order and disorder designate the presence or absence of some symmetry or correlation in a many-particle system. In condensed matter physics, systems typically are ordered at low temperatures; upon heating, they undergo one ...

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...

Biography

Tammann was born in Yamburg (now

Kingisepp Kingisepp ( or ), formerly Yamburg (), Yam (), and Yama (; Votic language, Votic: Jaama), is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Kingiseppsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located along the ...

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast (, ; ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). The oblast has an area of and a population of 2,000,997 (2021 Russian census, 2021 Census); up from 1,716,868 recorded in the 2010 Russian census ...

). His father, Heinrich Tammann (1833–1864) was of

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

peasant origin and his mother, Matilda Schünmann, was of German origin. Tammann graduated from University of Dorpat in chemistry. He went to

Göttingen University Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

in 1903 where he established the first Institute of Inorganic Chemistry in Germany. In 1908 he was appointed director of the Physico-Chemical Institute. Tammann died in Göttingen at age 77.

Research

In 1900, he discovered the

phases of ice Variations in pressure and temperature give rise to different phases of ice, which have varying properties and molecular geometries. Currently, twenty-one phases, including both crystalline and Amorphous solid, amorphous ices have been observed. ...

, now known as ice II and ice III. Later, his interests focused on the physics and physical chemistry of metals and alloys (

). He was also known for the Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann equation, and the Tait–Tammann equation of state which seeks to account for the compressibility of liquids. in 1919, Tammann predicted the

that is found in alloys at low temperatures. Tamman and Otto Heusler also observed an anomaly in the specific heat of a bronze alloy in 1926, related to the critical points of the disorder-order transition. This transition was demonstrated in 1929 by C. H. Johannsen and J. O Linde using

x-ray diffraction X-ray diffraction is a generic term for phenomena associated with changes in the direction of X-ray beams due to interactions with the electrons around atoms. It occurs due to elastic scattering, when there is no change in the energy of the waves. ...

Honours and awards

In 1925, Tammann was awarded

Liebig Medal The Liebig Medal (German: ''Liebig-Denkmünze'') was established by the Society of German Chemists () in 1903 to celebrate the centenary of Justus von Liebig. Since 1946 it has been awarded by the Society of German Chemists (''Gesellschaft Deutsc ...

. On 28 May 1936, Tammann was awarded the Eagle Shield of the German Empire (), with dedication "The Doyen of German Metallurgy".

Awards

Tammann was awarded the following prizes: *

of the Association of German Chemists () in 1925 * Heyn Medal of the German Society for Materials Science () in 1929 * Eagle Shield of the German Empire in 1936 The Tammann Commemorative Medal of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Materialkunde is named after him.

Bibliography

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tammann, Gustav Heinrich 1861 births 1938 deaths People from Kingisepp Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire German metallurgists Metallurgists from the Russian Empire Physical chemists University of Tartu alumni Academic staff of the University of Tartu Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925) Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Honorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the German Empire