William Eduard Weber

Wilhelm Weber
Born	Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-10-24)24 October 1804 Wittenberg, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire
Died	23 June 1891(1891-06-23) (aged 86) Göttingen, Hanover, Prussia
Nationality	German
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of Göttingen University of Halle University of Leipzig
Alma mater	University of Halle University of Göttingen
Doctoral advisor	Johann Salomo Christoph Schweigger
Doctoral students	Ernst Abbe Friedrich Kohlrausch Eduard Riecke
Other notable students	Gottlob Frege Arthur Schuster
Known for	First use of c for speed of light Work on magnetism Electrodynamometer Telegraphy
Notable awards	Copley Medal (1859) Matteucci Medal (1879)
Signature
Notes
The SI unit of magnetic flux is named after him. He was the brother of Ernst Heinrich Weber and Eduard Friedrich Weber. His father was .

Wilhelm Eduard Weber (German: [ˈveːbɐ]; 24 October 1804 – 23 June 1891) was a German physicist and, together with Carl Friedrich Gauss, inventor of the first electromagnetic telegraph.

Weber was born in Wittenberg, where his father, Michael Weber, was professor of theology. 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.

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.