| 1) Childhood
Hermann von Helmholtz was
born August 31, 1821 in Postsdam, Germany. Helmholtz was the eldest
of four children and a sickly child that required tutoring at home.
His father was August Ferdinand Julius Helmholtz and his mother was Caroline
Penn. His father was a strong influence on the paths of his son Hermann.
(Schultz, 2000)
Ferdinand Helmholtz served
in the Prussian army during the fight against Napoleon. Ferdinand
was a well-educated man. He studied both philosophy and philology
on the university level. He later became a poorly paid teacher at
PotsdamGymnasium. This poor income led to Hermann being raised with
financial difficulties. Ferdinand influenced Hermann with his love
of art and music. Caroline gave Hermann a character of reserve which
she acquired from her father being an artillery officer. (groups.dcs.st?and.ac.uk)
2) Adult Life
Herman attended school at
Potsdam Gymnasium since it was the school that his father taught in.
Because of Hermann’s financial problem the only way he could study medicine
was if he gained a grant to the school. With this in mind he signed
up to be a doctor for ten years with the Persian army, which would start
upon graduation. He studied at Royal Friedrich-Wilhelm Institute
of Medicine and Surgery located in Berlin. He also attended courses in
physiology and chemistry as well. Although Hermann made contributions
in mathematics he never attended any mathematic courses, he was instead
self-taught with books by Biot, Laplace and Daniel Bernoulli. He
graduating in 1843 and was placed in a military regiment at Potsdam.
(historia.et.tudelft.nl)
He later married Olga and
together had two kids together before she died in 1859. In 18 months
he remarried a sophisticated and attractive woman, Anna von Mohl with whom
he had three more kids with. Till his death in 1894 he made numerous discovers
and achievements gaining him the title of one of the greatest scientist
of the 19th century. (groups.dcs.st?and.ac.uk)
3) Professional Accomplishments
Hermann von Helmholtz was
known as many things. He was a mathematician, physicist, and physiologist.
He made discoveries in mathematics, meteorology, optics, electrodynamics
and physiology. (historia.et.tudelft.nl)
In 1847 Hermann and some
associates formed a mechanistic school of physiology in opposition to the
currently accepted concepts of life processes with nonphysical vital forces.
Their mechanistic school of physiology tried to explain physiological phenomena
with chemistry and physics. During 1843 and 1847 Helmholtz published
a series of papers about animal heat and muscle contraction using the principles
of the mechanistic school of physiology. In 1847 Hermann wrote On
the Conservation of Energy. This book addressed his theory on conservation
of energy using physics and philosophy. (historia.et.tudelft.nl)
Although Helmholtz was not
aware, he was not the first person to come up with the concept of conservation
of energy. Julius Mayer first introduced the conservation of energy
concept. Helmholtz came up with the concept off his own research
of energy. He based his theories on his previous work electricity
and muscles. (findarticles.com)
Around 1850 he switched his
attention to sensory physiology. He supported his mechanistic hypothesis
with research in the velocity of impulse in static nerves of frog legs
and other nerve impulses. (historia.et.tudelft.nl)
One of Hermann’s greatest
achievements was in the area of physiological acoustics. This work was
his resonance theory of hearing. It’s 1869 modifies form suggested that
“transverse fibers of the basilar membrane of the cochlea serve as tuned
resonators” (historia.et.tudelft.nl).
Hermann was also and important
contributor to the area of optics. He invented the ophthalmoscope,
which is a device, which examines the retina of the eye. This invention
allows us to check for retinal disorders and is still used today. (Schultz,
2000)
He later wrote a three-volume
piece on physiological optics called Handbook of Physiological Optic, which
he wrote between 1856 and 1866. He also wrote On the Sensations of Tone
in 1863. This work was a summarization of his findings and modern related
literature. Hermann was also responsible for the tri-color theory
that stated that humans have three visual receptors, which respond to there
own colors. He wrote about many different subjects including color
blindness, afterimages, and human eye movements the Arabian-Persian musical
scale, geometrical axioms, the formation of glaciers and even hay fever.
(Schultz, 2000)
His accomplishments in the
area of optics later became useful to psychology in the area of sensation
and perception. In my opinion based on his numerous accomplishments
he was a genious in his time and would be a genious in ours. |
