Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

POGGENDORFF, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1796-1...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 890 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

POGGENDORFF, JOHANN See also:CHRISTIAN (1796-1877) , See also:German physicist, was See also:born in See also:Hamburg on the 29th of See also:December 1796. His See also:father, a wealthy manufacturer, having been all but ruined by the See also:French See also:siege, he had, when only sixteen, to apprentice himself to an See also:apothecary in Hamburg, and when twenty-two began to See also:earn his living as an apothecary's assistant at See also:Itzehoe. Ambition and a strong inclination towards a scientific career led him to throw up his business and remove to See also:Berlin, where he entered the university in 1820. Here his abilities were speedily recognized, and in 1823 he was appointed meteorological observer to the See also:Academy of Sciences. Even at this See also:early See also:period he had conceived the See also:idea of See also:founding a See also:physical and chemical scientific See also:journal, and the realization of this See also:plan was hastened by the sudden See also:death of L. W. See also:Gilbert, the editor of Gilberts Annalen der Physik, in 1824. Poggendorff immediately put himself in communication with the publisher, See also:Barth of See also:Leipzig, with the result that he was installed as editor of a scientific journal, Annalen der Physik und- Chemie, which was to be a continuation of Gilberts Annalen on a somewhat extended plan. Poggendorff was admirably qualified for the See also:post. He had an extraordinary memory, well stored with scientific knowledge, both See also:modern and See also:historical, a cool and impartial See also:judgment, and a strong preference for facts as against theory of the speculative See also:kind. He was thus able to throw himself into the spirit of modern experimental See also:science. He possessed in abundant measure the German virtue of orderliness in the arrangement of knowledge and in the conduct of business.

Further he had an engaging geniality of manner and much tact in dealing with men. These qualities soon made Poggendorffs Annalen the foremost scientific journal in See also:

Europe. In the course of his fifty-two years' editorship of the Annalen Poggendorff could not fail to acquire an unusual acquaintance with the labours of modern men of science. This knowledge, joined to what he had gathered by historical See also:reading of equally unusual extent, he carefully digested and gave to the See also:world in his Biographisch-literarisches Handworterbuch zur Geschichte der exacten Wissenschaften, containing notices of the lives and labours of mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, and chemists, of all peoples and all ages. This See also:work contains an astounding collection of facts invaluable to the scientific biographer and historian. The first two volumes were published in 1863; after his death a third See also:volume appeared in 1898, covering the period 1858-1883, and a See also:fourth in 1904, coming down to the beginning of the loth See also:century. Poggendorff was a physicist of high although not of the very highest See also:rank. He was wanting in mathematical ability, and never displayed in any remarkable degree the still more important See also:power of scientific generalization, which, whether accompanied by mathematical skill or not, never fails to See also:mark the highest See also:genius in physical science. He was, however, an able and conscientious experimenter, and was very fertile and ingenious in devising physical apparatus. By far the greater and more important See also:part of his work related to See also:electricity and See also:magnetism. His See also:literary and scientific reputation speedily brought him See also:honourable recognition. In 1830 he was made royal See also:professor, in 1834 Hon.

Ph.D. and extraordinary professor in the university of Berlin, and in 1839 member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Many offers of See also:

ordinary professorships were made to him, but he declined them all, devoting himself to his duties as editor of the Annalen, and to the pursuit of his scientific researches. He died at Berlin on the 24th of See also:January 1877.

End of Article: POGGENDORFF, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1796-1877)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
POETRY 		[next]
POGGIO (1380-1459)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries