Wilhelm Eduard Weber ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|eɪ|b|ər}} {{respell|VAY|bər}},[http://www.dictionary.com/browse/weber "Weber"]. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. {{IPA|de|ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈʔeːdu.aʁt ˈveːbɐ|lang}}; 24 October 1804 – 23 June 1891) was a German physicist and, together with Carl Friedrich Gauss, inventor of the first electromagnetic telegraph.

Biography

=Early years=

Weber was born in Schlossstrasse in Wittenberg, where his father, Michael Weber, was professor of theology. The building had previously been the home of Abraham Vater.Wilhelm Weber House plaques, Wittenberg

Wilhelm was the second of three brothers, all of whom were distinguished by an aptitude for science. After the dissolution of the University of Wittenberg his father was transferred to Halle in 1815. Wilhelm had received his first lessons from his father, but was now sent to the Orphan Asylum and Grammar School at Halle. After that he entered the University, and devoted himself to natural philosophy. He distinguished himself so much in his classes, and by original work, that after taking his degree of Doctor and becoming a Privatdozent he was appointed Professor Extraordinary of natural philosophy at Halle.

=Career=

In 1831, on the recommendation of Carl Friedrich Gauss, he was hired by the University of Göttingen as professor of physics, at the age of twenty-seven. His lectures were interesting, instructive, and suggestive. Weber thought that, in order to thoroughly understand physics and apply it to daily life, mere lectures, though illustrated by experiments, were insufficient, and he encouraged his students to experiment themselves, free of charge, in the college laboratory. As a student of twenty years he, with his brother, Ernst Heinrich Weber, Professor of Anatomy at Leipzig, had written a book on the Wave Theory and Fluidity, which brought its authors a considerable reputation. Acoustics was a favourite science of his, and he published numerous papers upon it in Poggendorffs Annalen, Schweigger's Jahrbücher für Chemie und Physik, and the musical journal Carcilia. The 'mechanism of walking in mankind' was another study, undertaken in conjunction with his younger brother, Eduard Weber. These important investigations were published between the years 1825 and 1838. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen.

In December 1837, the Hanoverian government dismissed Weber, one of the Göttingen Seven, from his post at the university for political reasons. Weber then travelled for a time, visiting England, among other countries, and became professor of physics in Leipzig from 1843 to 1849, when he was reinstated at Göttingen. One of his most important works, co-authored with Carl Friedrich Gauss and Carl Wolfgang Benjamin Goldschmidt, was Atlas des Erdmagnetismus: nach den Elementen der Theorie entworfen (Atlas of Geomagnetism: Designed according to the elements of the theory),{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/atlasdeserdmagn00gausgoog | title=Book Details Page: Atlas Des Erdmagnetismus: Nach Den Elementen Der Theorie Entworfen | publisher=World Ebook Fair | access-date=27 August 2012}}{{cite book | url=http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=-587234182 | title=Atlas Des Erdmagnetismus: Nach Den Elementen Der Theorie Entworfen | publisher=Alibris | access-date=27 August 2012}} a series of magnetic maps, and it was chiefly through his efforts that magnetic observatories were instituted. He studied magnetism with Gauss, and during 1864 published his Electrodynamic Proportional Measures containing a system of absolute measurements for electric currents, which forms the basis of those in use. Weber died in Göttingen, where he is buried in the same cemetery as Max Planck and Max Born.

File:Grave of Wilhelm Eduard Weber at Stadtfriedhof Göttingen 2017 01.jpg]]

He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1855.

In 1855 with Rudolf Kohlrausch (1809–1858) he demonstrated that the ratio of electrostatic to electromagnetic units produced a number that matched the speed of light.{{cite book |last1=Assis |first1=Andre Koch Torres |editor1-last=Bevilacqua |editor1-first=F |editor2-last=Giannetto |editor2-first=EA |title=Volta and the History of Electricity |publisher=Universita degli Studi di Pavia and Editore Ulrico Hoepli |page=280 |url=https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Weber-Kohlrausch(2003).pdf |access-date=11 March 2023 |chapter=On the First Electromagnetic Measurement of the Velocity of Light by Wilhelm Weber and Rudolf Kohlrausch |quote=Weber and Kohlrausch found √2 c = 4.39 x 10^8 m/s, such that c = 3.1 x 10^8 m/s }} This finding led to Maxwell's conjecture that light is an electromagnetic wave. This also led to Weber's development of his theory of electrodynamics. Also, the first usage of the letter "c" to denote the speed of light was in an 1856 paper by Kohlrausch and Weber.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

International recognition

The SI unit of magnetic flux, the weber (symbol: Wb) is named after him.

Works

Elektrodynamische Maaßbestimmungen : insbesondere Zurückführung der Stromintensitäts-Messungen auf mechanisches Maass (with Wilhelm Weber) 1857. "Electrodynamic Measurements, Especially Attributing Mechanical Units to Measures of Current Intensity". [http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id299306070 German text]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221020062738/https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Weber-EM4.pdf English translation]
{{Cite book|title=Akustik, Mechanik, Optik und Wärmelehre|volume=|publisher=Springer|location=Berlin|year=1892|language=de|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11911009}}
{{Cite book|title=Wellenlehre|volume=|publisher=Springer|location=Berlin|year=1893|language=de|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11914951}}
{{Cite book|title=Galvanismus und Elektrodynamik|volume=|publisher=Springer|location=Berlin|year=1894|language=de|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11912944}}
{{Cite book|title=Mechanik der menschlichen Gehwerkzeuge|volume=|publisher=Springer|location=Berlin|year=1894|language=de|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11916490}}

Weber, Wilhelm – Wellenlehre, 1893 – BEIC 11914951.jpg|Wellenlehre, 1893

References

Bibliography

{{Cite journal | last1 = Gauss | first1 = Carl Friedrich | last2 = Weber | first2 = Wilhelm Eduard | title = Atlas Des Erdmagnetismus: Nach Den Elementen Der Theorie Entworfen | place = Leipzig | publisher = Weidmann'sche Buchhandlung | year = 1840 | url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_uTkAAAAAQAAJ | quote = wilhelm weber. }}
{{cite journal | author = G.C.F. (George Carey Foster)| title = Wilhelm Eduard Weber | journal = Nature | year = 1891 | volume = 44 | issue = 1132 | pages = 229–230 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Si8CAAAAYAAJ&q=wilhelm+eduard+weber&pg=PA230 | access-date = 16 November 2007 | doi = 10.1038/044229b0 | publisher = Macmillan Journals ltd. |bibcode = 1891Natur..44..229G | s2cid = 4060786 | doi-access = free }} – obituary
{{Cite journal | last1 = Urbanitsky | first1 = Alfred | last2 = Wormell | first2 = Richard | title = Electricity in the Service of Man | place = London | publisher = Cassell and Company | year = 1886 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/electricityinse00wormgoog/page/n791 756]–758 | url = https://archive.org/details/electricityinse00wormgoog | quote = wilhelm weber physics. }} – Telegraph of Weber and Gauss (with pictures)
{{cite web | title=Weber, Wilhelm Eduard | url=http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/people/data?id=per155 | work= Virtual Laboratory | publisher=Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin | access-date=5 September 2007}}
{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Myles W. |title=Harmonious Triads: Physicists, Musicians, and Instrument Makers in Nineteenth-Century Germany |publisher=MIT Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-262-27615-1 }}

External links

{{commonsinline|Wilhelm Eduard Weber}}
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{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Weber, Wilhelm|year=1905|short=x |noicon=x}}
{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Weber, Wilhelm Eduard|short=x |noicon=x}}
{{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Weber, Wilhelm Eduard|short=x |noicon=x}}

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[http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/people/data?id=per155 Biography and bibliography] in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
[https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/21st-Century-V22-p67-69(2010).pdf Wilhelm Weber's Works Translated into English] A bibliography compiled by A.K.T. Assis in [http://21sci-tech.com/highlights/Winter_2009-2010.html 21st Century Science and Technology] 2009-2010
{{MathGenealogy|id=57721}}
{{MacTutor|id=Weber}}
[https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Weber-in-English-Vol-1.pdf Wilhelm Weber's Main Works on Electrodynamics Translated into English. Volume 1: Gauss and Weber's Absolute System of units]
[https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Weber-in-English-Vol-2.pdf Wilhelm Weber's Main Works on Electrodynamics Translated into English. Volume 2: Weber's Fundamental Force and the Unification of the Laws of Coulomb, Ampère and Faraday]
[https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Weber-in-English-Vol-3.pdf Wilhelm Weber's Main Works on Electrodynamics Translated into English. Volume 3: Measurement of Weber's Constant c, Diamagnetism, the Telegraph Equation and the Propagation of Electric Waves at Light Velocity]
[https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Weber-in-English-Vol-4.pdf Wilhelm Weber's Main Works on Electrodynamics Translated into English. Volume 4: Conservation of Energy, Weber's Planetary Model of the Atom and the Unification of Electromagnetism and Gravitation]
[https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Weber-in-English-Vol-5.pdf Wilhelm Weber's Main Works on Electrodynamics Translated into English. Volume 5: Unipolar Induction, Galvanometry, Biographical Studies, and Weber's Electrodynamics Versus Different Field Theories]