Joseph von Fraunhofer
| Joseph von Fraunhofer | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
6 March 1787 Straubing, Electorate of Bavaria |
| Died | 7 June 1826 (aged 39) Munich, German Confederation |
Joseph Ritter von Fraunhofer (6 March 1787 – 7 June 1826) was a German physicist.
He is known for discovering the dark absorption lines known as Fraunhofer lines in the Sun's spectrum, and for making excellent optical glass and achromatic telescope objectives.
Joseph Fraunhofer was born in Straubing, in the Electorate of Bavaria, to Franz Xaver Fraunhofer and Maria Anna Frohlich. He was orphaned at the age of 11, and started working as an apprentice to a harsh glassmaker named Philipp Anton Weichelsberger. In 1801, the workshop in which he was working collapsed and he was buried in the rubble. The rescue operation was led by Prince-Elector Maximilian Joseph. The prince entered Fraunhofer's life, providing him with books and forcing his employer to allow the young Fraunhofer time to study.
Joseph Utzschneider was also at the site of the disaster, a fact which turned out to be important. With the money given to him by the prince upon his rescue and the support he received from Utzschneider, Fraunhofer was able to continue his education alongside his practical training. In 1806 Utzschneider and Georg von Reichenbach then brought Fraunhofer into their Institute at Benediktbeuern, a secularised Benedictine monastery devoted to glass making. There he discovered how to make the world's finest optical glass and invented incredibly precise methods for measuring dispersion.
It was at the Institute that Fraunhofer met Pierre Louis Guinand, a Swiss glass technician, who Utzschneider had introduce Fraunhofer to the secrets of glass making. In 1809 the mechanical part of the Optical Institute was chiefly under Fraunhofer's direction, and that same year he became one of the members of the firm. In 1814, Guinand left the firm, as did Reichenbach, and Fraunhofer became a partner in the firm, the name being changed to Utzschneider und Fraunhofer. In 1818, he became the director of the Optical Institute. Due to the fine optical instruments he had developed, Bavaria overtook England as the centre of the optics industry. Even the likes of Michael Faraday were unable to produce glass that could rival Fraunhofer's.
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