| Authorised form of name | Wiedemann; Gustav Heinrich (1826 - 1899); physicist |
| Dates | 1826 - 1899 |
| Nationality | German |
| Place of birth | Berlin, Germany, Europe |
| Date of birth | 02 October 1826 |
| Place of death | Leipzig, Germany, Europe |
| Date of death | 23 March 1899 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial: Mausoleum of the Mitscherlich family in the Old St. Matthew's Cemetery in Schöneberg, near Berlin. |
| Occupation | physicist |
| Research field | Magnetism |
| Physics |
| Chemistry |
| Activity | Education:
Private school; Cölnische Humanistische Gymnasium (1838); Uiversity of Berlin PhD (1847)
Career:
Professor of Physics, Basel (1854-1863); taught at Brunswick and at Carlsruhe; Professor of Physical Chemistry, Leipzig (1871); Professor of Physics, Leipzig; studied the thermal conductivity of metals.
Memberships:
Royal Saxon Society of Sciences (1871)
Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala (1877)
Royal Physiographic Society in Lund (1877)
Prussian Academy of Sciences (1879)
Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1880)
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1883) |
| Membership category | Foreign Member |
| Date of election | 31/01/1884 |
| Age at election | 58 |
| Proposer | William Grylls Adams |
| William de Wiveleslie Abney |
| William Henry Mahoney Christie |
| William Withey Gull |
| Thomas Lauder Brunton |
| Osbert Salvin |
| Hugo Miller |
| Warren De la Rue |
| George Gabriel Stokes |
| Michael Foster |
| Alexander William Williamson |
| Jon Evans |
| Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Relationships | Parents: Son of a Berlin merchant who died two years after Gustav Heinrich's birth. His mother died in 1842, after which he lived with his grandparents.
Spouse: (1851) Clara, daughter of Eilhard Mitscherlich (For Mem RS 1828).
Children: Eilhard Ernst Gustav Wiedemann (physicist) and Alfred Wiedeman (Egyptologist). |
| PublishedWorks | RCN R68151
RCN R68153 |
| OtherInfo | Found the connection between electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity in metals.
Investigated the polarization of light.
Determined the length of a mercury column.
Remembered for the Wiedemann-Franz's law, an empirical law governing the ratio of electrical and thermal conductivity of metals. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DSB
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc 1905 vol 75 pp 41-43 signed by G C F
References:
Rudolf Reiger: Wiedemann, Gustav Heinrich. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Vol. 55, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910, pp. 67–70. |
| Code | NA6666 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1884/05 | Wiedemann, Gustav Heinrich: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| NLB/11/821 | Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to Herrn Professor Dr E Wiedemann, Die Universitat, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany | 10 October 1895 |
| NLB/18/555 | Copy letter from Theodore E James, to Messrs Harrison & Sons | [29 March 1899] |
| MC/11/47 | Letter from Professor G [Gustav] Wiedemann, Fridericianum, Leipzig, to the Secretary of the Royal Society | 16 April 1877 |
| MC/11 | Volume 11 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1877-1879 |
| PP/10/28 | Paper, 'Clausius's formula for the change of state from liquid to gas applied to Messrs. Ramsay and Young's observations on alcohol' by George Francis Fitzgerald | 1887 |
| ACS/1/1/429 | Letter from [Gustav Heinrich] Wiedemann, to [Alan Archibald] Campbell Swinton, 66 Victoria [Street], London, S. W. | 15 March 1899 |