Julius Weisbach
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Julius Ludwig Weisbach (10 August 1806 – 24 February 1871) was a German mathematician and engineer. He taught at the mining academy (Bergakademie) at Freiberg. He taught surveying, descriptive geometry, and mineral crystal measurement.


Life and work

Weisbach was born on 10 August 1806 in Mittelschmiedeberg (now Mildenau municipality). His father was a foreman at a mill. He studied at a village school and then at Annaberg before going to the '' Bergakademie'' in
Freiberg Freiberg () is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the Elster and ...
from 1822 to 1826. After that, he studied with
Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; ; ; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician, astronomer, geodesist, and physicist, who contributed to many fields in mathematics and science. He was director of the Göttingen Observatory and ...
in
Göttingen 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 ...
and with
Friedrich Mohs Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs ( , ; 29 January 1773 – 29 September 1839) was a German chemist and mineralogist. He was the creator of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Mohs also introduced a classification of the crystal forms in crysta ...
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. ...
. In 1831 he returned to
Freiberg Freiberg () is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the Elster and ...
where he worked as mathematics teacher at the local Gymnasium. In 1833 he became teacher for Mathematics and the Theory of Mountain Machines at the Freiberg ''Bergakademie''. In 1836 he was promoted to Professor for applied mathematics, mechanics, theory of mountain machines and so-called ''Markscheidekunst''. He was a popular teacher and taught field surveying methods, geometry and mathematical applications. Students were impressed by his ability to write simultaneously with both hands. Weisbach wrote an influential book for mechanical engineering students, called ''Lehrbuch der Ingenieur- und Maschinenmechanik'', which has been expanded and reprinted on numerous occasions between 1845 and 1863. Weisbach was the first to develop a method for solving orthogonal linear regression problems. He examined the physics of steam engines, thermodynamics and mechanics. He took an interest in hydraulics and refined the Darcy equation into the still widely used
Darcy–Weisbach equation In fluid dynamics, the Darcy–Weisbach equation is an Empirical research, empirical equation that relates the head loss, or pressure loss, due to friction along a given length of pipe to the average velocity of the fluid flow for an incompressibl ...
.
Gustav Zeuner Gustav Anton Zeuner (30 November 1828 – 17 October 1907) was a German physicist, engineer and epistemologist, considered the founder of technical thermodynamics and of the Dresden School of Thermodynamics. Life University and Revolution Z ...
(1828–1907) was one of his students. In 1868 he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...
. He died on 24 February 1871 in
Freiberg Freiberg () is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the Elster and ...
, at the age of 64.


Family

His son Albin Weisbach became a professor of mineralogy. His daughter Maria Camilla Weisbach (1835–1908) met Edward Carl Hegeler (1835–1910) when he was studying with her father at Freiberg and later married him on 5 April, 1860. The couple settled in LaSalle,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
, where Hegeler had set up the Matthiessen-Hegeler Zinc Company. Their daughter Mary Hegeler, later Carus, was born on 10 January 1861, the first of ten children. Mary worked alongside her father as a young girl and was the first woman to graduate from the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
with a bachelor's degree in engineering in 1882. In 1885 she became the first woman to be legally enrolled to study at her grandfather's university, Bergakademie Freiberg, following a letter of recommendation from her cousin
Clemens Winkler Clemens Alexander Winkler (December 26, 1838 – October 8, 1904) was a German chemist who discovered the element germanium in 1886, solidifying Dmitri Mendeleev's theory of periodicity. Life Winkler was born in 1838 in Freiberg, Kingdom ...
.


Selected publications

*''Handbuch der Bergmaschinenmechanik'' (2 Bde., 1835/1836) *''Lehrbuch der Ingenieur- und Maschinenmechanik'' (3 Bde., 1845/1863) *''Der Ingenieur, Sammlung von Tafeln, Formeln und Regeln der Arithmetik, Geometrie und Mechanik'' (1848) *''Die neue Markscheidekunst und ihre Anwendung auf die Anlage des Rothschönberger Stollns bei Freiberg'' (1851) *''Anleitung zum axonometrischen Zeichnen'' (1857)


Notes


References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weisbach, Julius 19th-century German mathematicians Engineers from Saxony University of Göttingen alumni Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 1806 births 1871 deaths Scientists from Freiberg German fluid dynamicists