Martin Sekulić
{{Short description|Croatian mathematician and physicist (1833–1905)}}
{{about||the Croatian footballer|Martin Sekulić (footballer)}}
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| name = Martin Sekulić
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| birth_date = 1833
| birth_place = Lovinac, Austrian Empire
| death_date = 1905
| death_place = Zagreb, Austria-Hungary
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Martin Sekulić (1833–1905) was a mathematics and physics teacher from Karlovac, one of the few high-school professors who were members of the Croatian community of physicists at the time.{{sfn|Vukelja|2008|p=77}}{{sfn|Paušek-Baždar|2002|p=239}}
Biography
Martin Sekulić was born in Lovinac. He taught at the Higher Real School in Rakovac{{cite web|url=http://www.gimnazija-karlovac.hr/ucenici/poznati-bivsi-ucenici/49-nikola-tesla.html|title=Nikola Tesla – Gimnazija Karlovac|access-date=2016-08-21|language=Croatian}} (today Karlovac).
He was a corresponding member ({{langx|hr|dopisni član}}) of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts.{{sfn|Vukelja|2008|p=77}} He was also a member of the Croatian pedagogic and literary society (Hrvatski pedagogijsko-književni zbor).{{sfn|Petešić|1976|p=30}}
He published several articles in German-language journals, such as in the Annalen der Physik in 1872{{cite journal | journal = Annalen der Physik | language = German | title = Ultraviolette Strahlen sind unmittelbar sichtbar | first = Martin | last = Sekulić | volume = 222 | issue = 5 | pages = 157–158 | year = 1872 | doi=10.1002/andp.18722220511| bibcode = 1872AnP...222..157S | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1423726 }} and 1875.{{cite journal | journal = Annalen der Physik | volume = 230 | issue = 2 | pages = 308–316 | language = German | title = Ueber die an bestäubten und unreinen Spiegeln Sichtbare Interferenz-Erscheinung | first = Martin | last = Sekulić | date = 1875 | doi=10.1002/andp.18752300212| bibcode = 1875AnP...230..308S | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1423740 }}
He published several works in the Rad journal of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, such as Fluorescencija i calcescencija (1871){{cite journal|last1=Sekulić|first1=Martin|journal=Rad | volume = XV | title = Fluorescencija i calcescencija|date=1871|pages=77–86|language=hr}} and Iztraživanje sunčane duge (1873).{{cite journal|last1=Sekulić|first1=Martin|journal=Rad | volume = XXIII | title = Iztraživanje sunčane duge|date=1873|pages=75–85|language=hr}} In the 1871 treatise, he explains the effect of the luminescence in some elements and in the 1873 one he talks about the visible spectrum of the sun's light. In the 1871 treatise, Sekulić also predicted the existence of electromagnetic oscillations at different frequencies.{{sfn|Petešić|1976|p=30}}
During the period in which Martin Sekulić was the custodian of the science cabinet of his high school, he would inform his students of the very latest discoveries in the world of physics, and by the school year 1880/81 they had amassed a total of 277 machines for demonstration purposes, including a spectroscope modified by Sekulić himself.{{sfn|Petešić|1976|pp=30–31}}
Sekulić died in Zagreb.
Legacy
The inventor Nikola Tesla noted in his 1919 autobiography My Inventions that when he attended the Kraljevska Velika Realka in Rakovac (Karlovac) between 1870 and 1873, demonstrations of electricity by his "professor of physics" sparked his interest in this "mysterious phenomena" and made him want "to know more of this wonderful force".Margaret Cheney, Tesla: Man Out of Time, Simon and Schuster - 2011, page 38{{cite book|last1=Tesla|first1=Nikola|title=My Inventions|chapter=III. My Later Endeavours (The Discovery of the Rotating Magnetic Field)|date=1919|publisher=Experimenter Publishing Company, Inc.|location=New York|pages=864–865|title-link=My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla}} The details of who was teaching physics at that time and the nature of the demonstrations described have led some to conclude this professor was Martin Sekulić.Marc Seifer, Wizard: The Life And Times Of Nikola Tesla, Citadel - 1998, CHILDHOOD 1856-74 In his biography of Tesla, Ćiril Petešić notes that Tesla does not mention which professor this was by name, but thinks the evidence points to it being prof. Martin Sekulić.{{sfn|Petešić|1976|pp=29–30}}
References
{{reflist|35em}}
Sources
- {{cite book|last1=Petešić|first1=Ćiril|title=Genij s našeg kamenjara: život i djelo Nikole Tesle|trans-title=The genius from our rocks: life and work of Nikola Tesla|year=1976|publisher=Školske novine|location=Zagreb|language=hr|oclc=36439558}}
- {{cite journal | last = Vukelja | first = Tihomir | year = 2008 | language = hr | title = Zajednica fizičara u Banskoj Hrvatskoj početkom 20. stoljeća | trans-title = The community of physicists in Croatia proper at the start of the 20th century | journal = Studia lexicographica | publisher = Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography | volume = 2 | number = 3 | pages = 71–99 | issn = 2459-5578 | url = https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/clanak/258764 | via = Hrčak }}
- {{cite journal | last = Paušek-Baždar | first = Snježana | year = 2002 | language = hr | title = Prirodoznanstvena sredina u doba hrvatske moderne | trans-title = The realm of natural sciences at the time of Modernity in Croatia | journal = Hvar City Theatre Days | publisher = Croatian Academy of Science and Split Literary Circles and Arts | volume = 28 | number = 1 | pages = 237–246 | issn = 1849-0255 | url = http://hrcak.srce.hr/73979?lang=en }}
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