Abstract
Passing by Währingerstraße in Vienna, one encounters a gray, roughly triangular building block, the chemical, mathematical and physical institutes (in alphabetical order) of the University of Vienna . There is a simple monument in front of the entrance to Währingerstraße 38—a square with a stylized male figure and the words “Plus Lucis ”—“more light.”
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Notes
- 1.
Komorek [1].
- 2.
Baumgartner [2].
- 3.
Both England and Scotland boasted of a long tradition in pneumatic chemistry through the work of renowned early researchers such as Joseph Black (1728–99), Robert Boyle (1627–91), Joseph Priestley (1733–1804), Henry Cavendish (1731–1810), and Stephen Hales (1677–1761).
- 4.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Minckelers (last accessed 15 January 2018).
- 5.
Thomson [3].
- 6.
https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/ppn118726145.html#ndbcontent (last accessed 15 January 2018).
- 7.
http://www.cesa-project.eu/en/lexicon/authors/johann-joseph-von-prechtl (last accessed 15 January 2018).
- 8.
MacIsaac et al. [4].
- 9.
Sedlacek [5].
- 10.
Brewster [6].
- 11.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limelight (last accessed 15 January 2018).
- 12.
Cruickshank [7].
- 13.
Harvey [8].
- 14.
Mason [9].
- 15.
Wood [10].
- 16.
Asano et al. [11].
- 17.
Greffet et al. [12].
- 18.
White [13].
- 19.
Phillips [14].
- 20.
Ivey [15].
- 21.
Wolters and Roslin [16].
- 22.
Gentsch [17].
- 23.
Gentsch [18].
- 24.
Other inventors had tried applying slurries of salts to fabric, but these networks were unsuccessful because of uneven distribution of the incandescent material and and the fragility of their bonds to one another.
- 25.
Jørgensen et al. [19].
- 26.
Auer von Welsbach [20].
- 27.
Auer von Welsbach [21].
- 28.
D’Ans [23].
- 29.
One Hefnerkerze has a light output of 0.920 cd. The unit is based on the Hefner lamp, the luminosity standard in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Scandinavia and the German-speaking countries. Palaz [24].
- 30.
The gulden was the unit of currency in the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1892; 1,000,000 gulden had an 1890-dollar value of about $414,000.
- 31.
Sedlacek [25].
- 32.
Chimneys were used to enclose the mantle and allow the gas flame to impinge upon it in a controlled space.
- 33.
The Decision of Justice Wills in the English Welsbach Suit. In Gentsch [26].
- 34.
Jørgensen [27].
- 35.
Jørgensen [28].
- 36.
Commercially viable deposits can only be found along the seashores in countries that escaped the erosion due to prehistoric glaciers, namely the Brazilian coast and the coastlines of North and South Carolina. Furthermore, beaches are constantly subjected to the vagaries of weather and tide, so the localities of the deposits are considerably unstable, even from day to day. Nitze [29]. In Gentsch [30].
- 37.
Habashi [31].
- 38.
Ives et al. [32].
- 39.
Barrows [33].
- 40.
Stock [34].
- 41.
Ludwig Camillo Haitinger was the precocious scion of an old Viennese family. He published his first paper at the age of 17, a treatise on the direct nitration of aliphatic compounds. In 1879 he completed his “Matura” examination and from 1880 on he worked as Adolph Lieben’s private assistant. He and Lieben jointly determined the exact structure of chelidonic acid. He also discovered a number of cases of observed tautomerism. With the advent of the Welsbach mantle, he entered wholeheartedly into the venture and took over the management of the company named “Welsbach-Williams Ltd.” in Vienna-Atzgersdorf. In 1893, when the gas mantles were already being used on a large scale, he became Director of Gasglühlicht AG. Vienna. Haitinger’s main contribution to the science of the mantles was chiefly in the recognition of the importance of adding small amounts of certain annealing oxides to enhance the luminosity of the lamps. He remained Carl Auer von Welsbach’s trusted assistant throughout the rest of his career.
- 42.
Gasometers were gas storage containers at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature.
- 43.
Adunka [35].
- 44.
Estimated candlepower for the Welsbach lights, depending on their form, was between 75 and 100 candlepower, with an estimated lifetime of not less than 1000 h.
- 45.
The [New York] City Record (1906) 34, Part 2:1441.
- 46.
Report of the Franklin Institute [36]. This report was quite thorough in that it gave a brief history of the development of incandescent gas lighting, including the work of two Americans, W. M. Jackson in 1881 and Charles M. Lungren in 1881, with additional patents as late as 1887. In its description of Auer’s contributions, they make special note of the great attention to detail he gave in his lamp development to make its use practical. It also gives the numbers and dates of Auer’s most important U.S. patents.
- 47.
Jørgensen [37].
- 48.
Rubens [38].
- 49.
Rubens and Aschkinass [39].
- 50.
Kangro [40].
- 51.
Lecture given at the 32nd annual gathering of the Deutschen Vereins von Gas- und Wasserfachmännern in Kiel on 28 June, 1892 (as cited in Hartwig G (1894) Das Gasglühlicht. Hellmuth Henkler’s Verlag, Dresden, p. 49).
- 52.
Sedlacek [41].
- 53.
The title “Freiherr” is equivalent to “Baron” in English.
- 54.
Feldhaus [42].
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Adunka, R., Orna, M.V. (2018). Plus Lucis. In: Carl Auer von Welsbach: Chemist, Inventor, Entrepreneur. SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77905-8_5
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