Heinrich Rubens

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Heinrich Rubens
Born(1865-05-30)30 May 1865
University of Berlin
Known forResearch in the field of Black-body radiation
AwardsRumford Medal
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics

Heinrich Rubens (30 March 1865, Wiesbaden, Duchy of Nassau – 17 July 1922, Berlin, Germany) was a German physicist. He is known for his measurements of the energy of black-body radiation which led Max Planck to the discovery of his radiation law. This was the genesis of quantum theory.

After having attended

Hermann Helmholtz at the University of Berlin. Rubens followed after and got his doctors degree there the same year. In the period 1890–1896 he was employed as an assistant at the physics institute and made his habilitation in 1892. He was then a privatdozent and was allowed to teach. Already then he was praised for his experimental investigations of infrared radiation.[3]

The grave of Heinrich and Marie Rubens in Berlin.

Rubens got a permanent position in 1896 as docent at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität Berlin). He could continue his experimental research at the nearby Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt. It was there he in 1900 did his important measurements of black-body radiation which made him world-famous. He was promoted to professor the same year.

After

Solvay conferences after having received the Rumford Medal
in 1910 "on the ground of his researches on radiation, especially of long wave length.".

Heinrich Rubens died in 1922 after a longer illness. At a memorial meeting in the science academy the following year Max Planck said about him:[4]

Without the intervention of Rubens the formulation of the radiation law and thereby the foundation of quantum theory would perhaps have arisen in quite a different manner, or perhaps not have developed in Germany at all.

He is buried at the

Nazis.[5] The burial place is near that of Gustav Kirchhoff, who founded spectroscopy and formulated the first laws
of black-body radiation.

Scientific contributions

Solvay conference
1911. Rubens is the third person from left standing in the back.

Already as a student was Rubens fascinated by

infrared radiation. Rubens succeeded in this for wavelengths up to 10 μm.[7]

Through the improvements of instruments and invention of new techniques he could measure infrared radiation for larger and larger wavelengths. One of his goals was to better understand the reflexion of radiation by metals and crystals. It was known that this became stronger for wavelengths which were absorbed. This lead him to a new, powerful method by selective reflexion from several crystals to isolate a narrow range of infrared wavelengths from a broader spectrum of radiation. Using such Reststrahlen he could in 1898 detect wavelengths of sizes around 60 μm.[4]

Together with

Lord Rayleigh
.

On 7 October 1900 Rubens and his wife were invited to dinner by

Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft a derivation of his new radiation law based on the idea of quantization of energy. This was the "birthday" of the new quantum physics.[10]

In the following years Rubens could improve his measurements of infrared radiation and reached wavelengths of several hundred micrometres. This enabled him also to make more and more accurate tests of Plancks new radiation theory and related studies of matter which soon could be described by

flammable gas in a tube. This was probably inspired by his teacher Kundt's tube
where fine sand or powder was used for the same purpose.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c H. Kant, Heinrich Rubens, Deutsche Biographie.
  2. ^ a b W. Westphal, Heinrich Rubens, Die Naturwissenschaften 10 (48), 1017–1020 (1922).
  3. ^ H. Rubens, Über Dispersion ultraroter Strahlen, Annalen der Physik 45, 238 (1892).
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-9810-24342-5
  5. ^ Stolpersteine, Marie Rubens, Berlin.
  6. ^ a b G. Hertz, Rubens und die Maxwellsche Theorie, Die Naturwissenschaften, 10 (48), 1024–1027 (1922).
  7. ISBN 978-2884-49163-1
    .
  8. ^ A. Pais, Einstein and the Quantum Theory, Review of Modern Physics, 51 (4), 863–914 (1979).
  9. ^ G. Hettner, Die Bedeutung von Rubens Arbeiten für die Plancksche Strahlungsformel, Die Naturwisssenschaften 10 (48), 1033–1038 (1922).
  10. ISBN 0-850-66063-7
    .

External links

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