RITTER VON WILHELM KARL

See also:

• RITTER VON WILHELM KARL HAIDINGER (1795-1871)

HAIDINGER (1795-1871)  , Austrian mineralogist, geologist and physicist, was born at Vienna on the 5th of February 1795 . His father, Karl Haidinger, contributed largely to the development of mineralogical science in the latter half of the 18th century . Having studied at the normal school of St Anne, and attended classes at the university, Wilhelm, at the age of seventeen, joined Professor F . Mohs at Gratz, and five years later accompanied the professor to Freiberg on the transfer of his labours to the mining academy of that town . In 1822 Haidinger visited France and England with Count Breunner, and, journeying northward, took up his abode in Edinburgh . He translated into English, with additions of his own, Mohs's Grundriss der Mineralogie, published at Edinburgh in three volumes under the title Treatise on Mineralogy (1825) . After a tour in northern Europe, including the Scandinavian mining districts, he undertook the scientific direction of the porcelain works at Elbogen, belonging to his brothers . In 1840 he was appointed counsellor of mines (Bergrat) at Vienna in the place of Professor Mohs, a post which included the charge of the imperial cabinet of minerals . He devoted himself to the re-arrangement and enrichment of the collections, and the museum became the first in Europe . Shortly after (1843) Haidinger commenced a series of lectures on mineralogy, which was given to the world under the title Handbuch der bestimmenden Mineralogic (Vienna, 1845; tables, 1846) . On the establishment of the imperial geological institute, he was chosen director (1849); and this important position he occupied for seventeen years . He was elected a member of the imperial board of agriculture and mines, and a member of the imperial academy of sciences of Vienna .

He organized the society of the Freunde der Naturwissenschaften . As a physicist Haidinger ranked high, and he was one of the most active promoters of scientific progress in

Austria . He was the discoverer of the interesting optical appearances which have been called after him " Haidinger's brushes." Knighted in 1865, the following year he retired to his estate at Dornbach near Vienna, where he died on the 19th of March 1871 . In addition to the works already named, Haidinger published Anfangsgriinde der Mineralogie (Leipzig, 1829); Geognostische Ubersichtskarte der osterreich . Monarchic (Vienna, 1847) ; Bemerkungen fiber die Anordnung der kleinsten Theilchen in Christallen (Vienna, 1853); Interferenzlinien am Glimmer (Vienna, 1855) ; Vergleichungen von Augil and Amphibol (Vienna, 1855) . He also edited the Naturwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (Vienna, 1847) ; the Berichte fiber die Mittheilungen von Freunden der Nalurwissenschaften in Wien (Vienna, 1847—1851); and the Jahrbuch of the Vienna K . K . Geologische Reichsanstalt (185o), &c . Some of his papers will be found in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (vol. x.) and of the Wernerian Society (1822—1823), Edinburgh Phil . Journal, Brewster's Journal of Science, and Poggendorff's Annalen . (H . B .