Joseph Petzval, German Mathematician
Joseph Petzval (January 6, 1807 - September 19, 1891) was a German-Hungarian mathematician, inventor, and physicist. He is considered to be one of the main founders of geometrical optics, modern photography and cinematography. Among his inventions and works are the Petzval portrait lens, opera glasses, lens system calculations that led to the perfection of a telescope and microscope (1843), computations for efficient binoculars, and construction of new floodlights (1847). He is also credited with the discovery of the Laplace transform. It could, and some say should, be called the Petzval transformation, since he was the first to study it and its applications in usual linear differential equations systematically. In 1859, his home was broken into, and his manuscripts were destroyed. His most refined technical book on optics, lost with his manuscripts, would never appear in print. From then on, he primarily concerned himself with acoustics and began to withdraw from society. He was particularly concerned with string oscillations, differential equations of the string oscillations, and the mathematical theory of musical instruments. He developed a theory of the oscillations of strained strings as well as his own theory of tone systems. He became a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1873. In 1877, he stopped lecturing, withdrew to a monastery, and became a hermit. He died in 1891, at the age of 84, mostly forgotten, embittered, and destitute.
Size: 3300px × 4491px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, 19th, acoustics, art, artwork, bw, century, cinematography, drawing, famous, figure, geometrical, german, german-hungarian, glasses, hermit, historic, historical, history, hungarian, illustration, important, inventor, josef, joseph, jozef, jozsef, laplace, lens, male, man, mathematician, mathematics, maximilian, maximiliÌÁ, men, miksa, modern, notable, opera, optics, oscillations, people, person, personalities, personality, petzval, petzvÌÁ, photo, photograph, photography, physicist, physics, portrait, science, systems, theory, tone, transform
