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PHYSICS.
475
Physics.
It was comparatively låte that Physics was admitted as an independent
science in the Swedish university curriculum, inasmuch as still in the beginning
of the eighteenth century it was always attached to some other subject, usually to
mathematics. The first strong impetus to independent physical research in Sweden
was received in connection with the universal revival of learning in the middle
of the eighteenth century.
Anders Celsius (1701/44) was
above all an astronomer, but devoted
himself also to physical research. He
made photometrical observations, he
studied the aurora borealis, terrestrial
magnetism, the alteration in gravity
according to latitude, etc. His name
is connected with the centigrade
thermometer-scale, which, however, he first
adjusted in such a manner that the
boiling-point of water was fixed at
zero, and the melting-point of ice at
100 degrees. Linnæus was the first
to determine the present form of the
scale. — iS. Klingenstierna (1698/
1765), a famous mathematician and
optician, was the first professor of
physics at the University of Uppsala
(1755), where he exercised great
influence as a teacher. The most
celebrated of his pupils was J. K. Wilcke
(1732/96), a very notable
experimentalist in the domain of electricity.
Among his works may be specially
mentioned his observations on the
variations in terrestrial magnetism
(whereby he also corroborated the
observations of Celsius on the influence of
the aurora borealis on the magnetic
needle), and also his notable studies on calorimetrv, the main principles of which
were indepedently discovered by him. — G. G. Hällström (1775 1844; professor
at Åbo) is known by his valuable researches on the expansion of bodies by heat.
With the nineteenth century, physical science also in Sweden enters its
flourishing period. F. Rudberg (1800 39) won fame by a series of important
experimental researches. Among these, special mention may be made of his researches
in crystal-optics, his improvements in the construction and testing of the
thermometer, his discovery of double melting-points in certain metallic alloys, and his
researches regarding the expansion of gases, especially his determining the
coefficient of the expansion of air. — A. F. Svanberg (1806/57) has among other
things investigated the thermo-electrical power in bismuth and antimony crystals, and
also constructed and described several apparatus of great ingenuity, viz. an electric
duplicator, the precursor, in principle, of Holtz’ machine, and a galvanic differential
thermometer, which differs only in technical details from the now commonly used
bolometer, constructed by the American Langley for investigating radiating heat.
Anders Jonas Ångström.
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