Henry Hertz: biography, scientific discoveries

In the history of science, many discoveries have been made. However, only a few of them we have to face every day. It is impossible to imagine modern life and without what Hertz Henry Rudolph did.

This German physicist became the founder of dynamics and proved to the whole world the existence of electromagnetic waves. It is thanks to his research that we use television and radio, which are firmly established in every person's everyday life.

A family

Henry Hertz was born on 22.02.1857. His father, Gustav, was a lawyer in his line of business, after having served in the Senate of the city of Hamburg, where the family lived. The mother of the boy is Betty Augusta. She was the daughter of the famous Cologne founder of the bank. It is worth mentioning that this institution is still functioning in Germany. Henry was the first-born of Betty and Gustav. Later, three more boys and one girl appeared in the family.

School years

As a child, Henry Hertz was a weak and painful boy. That's why he did not like moving games and physical exercises. But Henry with great enthusiasm read various books and studied foreign languages. All this contributed to the training of memory. There are interesting facts about the biography of the future scientist, who say that the boy was able to learn Arabic and Sanskrit by himself.

Parents believed that their first-born would certainly become a lawyer, following in the footsteps of his father. The boy was given to the Hamburg Real School. There he had to study jurisprudence. However, at one of the levels of training in the school began to take classes in physics. And from that moment Henry's interests radically changed. Fortunately, his parents did not insist on studying the legal case. They allowed the boy to find his calling in life and transferred him to a gymnasium. On weekends Henry was engaged in a school of crafts. A lot of time the boy spent behind the drawings, studying carpentry. As a schoolboy, he made his first attempts to create instruments and apparatus for studying physical phenomena. All this testified to the fact that the child is drawn to knowledge.

Student years

In 1875, Henry Hertz received a certificate of maturity. This gave him the right to enter the university. In 1875, he went to Dresden, where he became a student of the Higher Technical School. At first, studying in this institution liked the boy. However, soon Henry Hertz realized that the career of an engineer is not his vocation. The young man left the school and went to Munich, where he was immediately taken to the second year of the university.

Path to science

As a student, Henry began to strive for research. But soon the young man realized that the knowledge received at the university for this is clearly not enough. That's why, having received a diploma, he went to Berlin. Here, in the capital of Germany, Henry became a student at the university and got a job as an assistant in the laboratory of Hermann Helmholtz. This greatest physicist of that time noticed a talented young man. Soon a good relationship was established between them, which later passed not only to close friendship, but also to scientific cooperation.

Doctorate Degree

Under the leadership of the famous physicist Hertz defended his thesis, becoming a recognized expert in the field of electrodynamics. It was in this direction that they subsequently made fundamental discoveries that immortalized the name of the scientist.

In those years, neither the electric field nor the magnetic field had been studied. Scientists believed that there are simple fluids. They allegedly have inertia, thanks to which an electric current appears and disappears in the conductor.

Heinrich Hertz conducted numerous experiments. However, it did not receive any positive results to detect inertia. Nevertheless, in 1879, for his studies, he received the prize of the University of Berlin. This award served as a powerful impetus for the continuation of his research activities. The results of the scientific experiments of Hertz subsequently formed the basis of the thesis. Her defense 5. 02.1880 was the beginning of the career of a young scientist, who at that time was 32 years old. Hertz was crowned with a doctoral degree, having graduated with honors from the University of Berlin.

Management of own laboratory

Henry Hertz, whose biography as a scientist did not end up defending his dissertation, for some time continued his theoretical studies at the physics institute at the University of Berlin. However, he soon realized that he was becoming more and more involved in experiments.

In 1883, on the recommendation of Helmholtz, the young scientist received a new post. He became an assistant professor in Kiel. Six years after this appointment, Hertz rose to become a physics professor, starting his work in Karlsruhe, where the Higher Technical School was located. Here, for the first time, Hertz received his own experimental laboratory, which provided him with the freedom of creativity and the opportunity to engage in interesting experiments. The main area of research of the scientist was the field of studying fast electric oscillations. These were the questions over which Hertz worked, while still a student.

In Karlsruhe, Heinrich married. His wife was Elizabeth Dolle.

Obtaining evidence of scientific discovery

Despite his marriage, scientist Heinrich Hertz did not abandon his work. He continued to conduct studies on the study of inertia. In his scientific developments, Hertz relied on the theory put forward by Maxwell, according to which the speed of radio waves should be similar to the speed of light. In the period from 1886 to 1889 years. Hertz conducted numerous experiments in this direction. As a result, the scientist proved the existence of electromagnetic waves.

Despite the fact that for his experiments the young physicist used primitive equipment, he managed to get quite serious results. The work of Hertz became not only a confirmation of the presence of electromagnetic waves. The scientist also determined the speed of their propagation, refraction, and reflection.

Henry Hertz, whose discoveries formed the basis of modern electrodynamics, received for his work a huge number of different awards. Among them:
- Baumgartner Prize, awarded by the Vienna Academy;
- Medal of. Matteuchi, presented by the Society of Sciences in Italy;
- Prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences;
- The Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure.

In addition, we all know the hertz - a unit of frequency, named after the famous pioneer. Simultaneously, Henry became a corresponding member in the Academies of Sciences of Rome, Berlin, Munich and Vienna. Those conclusions that the scientist has made are truly invaluable. Thanks to what Henry Hertz discovered, inventions, such as wireless telegraph, radio and television, were subsequently made possible for humanity. And today without them it is impossible to imagine our life. And the hertz is a unit of measurement familiar to each of us from the school bench.

Opening the photoelectric effect

Since 1887, scientists began to reconsider their theoretical ideas about the nature of light. And it happened thanks to the research of Heinrich Hertz. While carrying out work with an open resonator, the famous physicist drew attention to the fact that the illumination of the arresters by ultraviolet greatly facilitates the passage of sparks between them. Such a photoeffect was thoroughly tested by the Russian physicist AG Stoletov in 1888-1890. It turned out that this phenomenon is caused by elimination of negative electricity from metal surfaces in connection with exposure to ultraviolet light.

Heinrich Hertz is a physicist who discovered the phenomenon (later it was explained by Albert Einstein), which today is widely used in engineering. So, the photoelectric effect is based on the photoelectric effect, with the help of which it is possible to obtain electricity from sunlight. Such devices are especially relevant in space conditions, where there are no other sources of energy. Also, with the help of photocells from the film, the recorded sound is reproduced. And that is not all.

Today, scientists learned how to combine photocells with relays, which led to the creation of various "seeing" machines. These devices are able to automatically close and open doors, turn off and turn on the lights, sort objects, etc.

Meteorology

To this field of science, Hertz has always been deeply interested. Although the scientist did not investigate meteorology in depth, he wrote a number of articles dealing with this topic. This was the period when the physicist worked in Berlin Helmholtz's helper. Hertz also carried out research on the evaporation of liquids, the determination of the properties of the adiabatic raw air, the production of a new graphic means, and a hygrometer.

Contact Mechanics

Herz was most popular with discoveries in the field of electrodynamics. In the years 1881-1882. The scientist published two articles on the mechanics of contact. This work was of great importance. Its result was the results, based on the classical theory of elasticity and continuum mechanics. Developing this theory, Hertz observed the rings of Newton, which are formed as a result of the placement of a glass sphere on the lens. To date, this theory has been revised somewhat, and it is based on all existing models of contact transition in the prediction of nanoscale parameters.

Spark radio receiver Hertz

This invention of the scientist was the precursor of the dipole antenna. Hertz radio was created from a single-turn inductor, and also from a spherical capacitor in which an air gap for a spark was left. The device was placed by a physicist in a darkened box. This made it possible to see the spark better. However, this experience of Henry Hertz showed that the length of the spark in the box was significantly reduced. Then the scientist removed the glass panel, which was placed between the receiver and the source of electromagnetic waves. The length of the spark thus increased. What caused this phenomenon, Hertz did not have time to explain.

And only later, thanks to the development of science, the discoveries of the scientist were finally understood by others and became the basis for the birth of the "wireless era". In general, all Hertz electromagnetic experiments have explained the polarization, refraction, reflection, interference, and also the speed that electromagnetic waves possess .

Beam effect

In 1892, based on his experiments, Hertz demonstrated the passage of cathode rays through a thin foil made of metal. This "ray effect" was more fully explored by the student of the great physicist Philip Lenard. He also developed the theory of the cathode tube and studied the penetration of various materials by X-rays. All this became the basis of the greatest invention, which is widely used today. This was the discovery of an X-ray, formulated using the electromagnetic theory of light.

Memory of the great scientist

In 1892, Hertz suffered a serious migraine, after which he was diagnosed with an infection. The scientist was operated on several times, trying to get rid of the disease. However, at the age of thirty-six, Hertz Heinrich Rudolph died of blood poisoning. Until very late days, the famous physicist worked on his work "Principles of Mechanics, outlined in a new connection." In this book, Hertz tried to comprehend his discoveries, outlining further ways of studying electrical phenomena.

After the death of the scientist, this work was completed and prepared for publication by Hermann Helmholtz. In the foreword to this book, he pointed out that Hertz was the most talented of his students, and that his discoveries would subsequently determine the development of science. These words became prophetic. Interest in the discoveries of the scientist appeared in the researchers a few years after his death. And in the 20th century, on the basis of Hertz's works, practically all the trends that belong to modern physics began to develop.

In 1925, for the discovery of laws on the collision of electrons with an atom, the scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize. Received her nephew, the great physicist - Gustav Ludwig Hertz. In 1930, the International Electrotechnical Commission adopted a new unit of the measurement system. Her became Hertz (Hz). This is the frequency corresponding to one oscillation period for a second.

In 1969 on the territory of East Germany erected a memorial to them. G. Hertz. In 1987, the Heinrich Hertz IEEE medal was established. Her annual award is made for outstanding achievements in the field of experiment and theory using any waves. In honor of Hertz, even the lunar crater, which is located behind the eastern edge of the celestial body, was called.