Wilhelm von Haidinger
| Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
5 February 1795 Vienna |
| Died | 19 March 1871 (aged 76) Dornbach, suburb of Vienna |
Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger (or Wilhelm von Haidinger, or most often Wilhelm Haidinger) (5 February 1795 – 19 March 1871) was an Austrian mineralogist.
Wilhelm Haidinger was born in Vienna on 5 February 1795. His father, Karl Haidinger (1756–1797), was a mineralogist and geologist employed from 1780 onwards at the "Kaiserlich-Königliches Naturalien Cabinet". One of the collections of the Cabinet was of rocks and minerals; in 1782 Karl Haidinger published a book on that part of the collection. Apart from classification activities Karl Haidinger engaged in scientific research on for example the metallurgical amalgamation process and taught its application to mining engineers in Schemnitz, now known as Banská Štiavnica in Slovakia. Several papers from his hand were published in Ignaz Edler von Born's science magazine "Physikalische Arbeiten der einträchtigen Freunde in Wien" and in the "Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien". One of Karl Haidinger's papers entitled "Entwurf einer systematischen Eintheilung der Gebirgsarten" won a first prize in the 1785 competition organized by the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts of St. Petersburg, Russia, and was published separately as a book.
In order to gain more knowledge of the latest developments in science and technology, Karl Haidinger partook in an official visit to England in 1795, together with several other scientists in government service. Once there the planning and the construction of canals, the production and use of steam engines, the iron casting process and the manufacture of porcelain were studied. After his return to Vienna Karl Haidinger started to write his part of the reports, but his task was never finished. On 16 March 1797 Karl Haidinger died in Vienna.
When Wilhelm Haidinger was only two years old, he had lost his father. The books on mineralogy and the collection of rocks and minerals of his father will almost certainly have raised the interest of young Wilhelm. The collection of his uncle, banker Jakob Friedrich van der Nüll, was by far larger and much more precious, even to such a degree that the famous professor Friedrich Mohs of Freiberg (Germany) had been asked to describe it in detail. Young Wilhelm Haidinger and the professor often met in the house of Wilhelm's uncle. After completing the "Normalschule" and the "Grammatikalschule" Wilhelm started out his pre-academical training at the local "Gymnasium". However after completing only his first year, the "Humanitätsclasse", Wilhelm (by now 17 years old) was asked by professor Friedrich Mohs to join him as his assistant at the newly founded Joanneum Universalmuseum in Graz. During the next five years in Graz and the following six years in Freiberg Wilhelm Haidinger remained a devoted assistant and admirer of professor Friedrich Mohs. During these years Haidinger became more and more involved in scientific work. In 1821 Wilhelm Haidinger published his first scientific paper: "On the crystallisation of copper-pyrites" in the Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society (Edinburgh), volume 4, pp. 1–18. This paper formed the start of a grand total of some 350 scientific publications, all of which are listed in volume 3 of the "Catalogue of Scientific Papers(1800-1863)" and volume 10 of the same catalogue for the years 1864-1883. Apart from all these papers Wilhelm Haidinger published several books: "Anfangsgründe der Mineralogie", an account on the collection of the "k. k. Hofkammer im Münz- und Bergwesen"; a review of mineralogical research (which later grew into a well-known series edited by Gustav Adolph Kenngott); his "Handbuch der bestimmenden Mineralogie"; an atlas to this textbook on mineralogy and the first complete geological map of Austria-Hungary.
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