39 Facts About Joseph Petzval

Joseph Petzval was a mathematician, inventor, and physicist best known for his work in optics.

Joseph Petzval was born in the town of Szepesbela in the Kingdom of Hungary.

Joseph Petzval became a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1873.

Joseph Petzval is considered to be one of the main founders of geometrical optics, modern photography and cinematography.

Joseph Petzval is credited with the discovery of the Laplace transform and is known for his extensive work on aberration in optical systems.

In 1801, Joseph Petzval's father married the Zipser-German Susanne Kreutzmann, who was born in Szepesbela, Kingdom of Hungary, a daughter of the previous teacher at the same school in Szepesbela.

Joseph Petzval's father worked as a teacher at the evangelical school in Szepesbela, as well as an organist in Szepesbela and later in Kesmark.

Joseph Petzval was a conductor and a geodesist in Locse.

Joseph Petzval had a reputation as an outstanding musician and composer, who was gifted mechanically.

Joseph Petzval's brother, Petrol Baltazar Joseph Petzval, was a well-respected mathematician, engineer and astronomer.

Joseph Petzval attended elementary school in Kesmark, and began his secondary school studies in Kesmark and Podolin.

One anecdote told about Joseph Petzval is as follows: When his family had already decided to make a shoemaker out of Joseph Petzval, he read the book Analytic Paper on the Elements of Mathematics by the German mathematician Hauser over the summer holidays, just after completing his fourth class in elementary school.

Joseph Petzval was preparing to undergo a repeat class in mathematics.

When he arrived there in 1823, Joseph Petzval was already well-versed in the subjects of Latin, mathematical analysis, classical literature and stylistics.

From 1826 to 1828, Joseph Petzval studied at the Institutum Geometricum in Buda, and earned an engineering diploma in 1828.

Joseph Petzval authored an unrealized plan to build a navigation channel around Buda.

Joseph Petzval moved into a rented abandoned monastery at Kahlenberg mountain.

Joseph Petzval's lenses became world-famous because Petzval was a skillful lens sharpener and precision mechanic.

Joseph Petzval's most refined technical book on optics, lost with his manuscripts, would never appear in print.

In 1869, at the age of 62, Joseph Petzval married his housekeeper, but she died four years later.

Joseph Petzval died in Vienna in 1891, nearly forgotten, embittered, and destitute.

Just before his death, Joseph Petzval was reported to have said:.

Joseph Petzval inherited an excellent talent for music from his father.

Joseph Petzval never wanted to communicate anything about his private life, and was therefore relatively inscrutable to others during his lifetime.

Joseph Petzval had a controversy with Christian Doppler over problems of acoustics, and Doppler responded in 1852 with a book entitled "Remarks Over the Objections Stated by Professor Joseph Petzval Against the Correctness of My Theory".

When Joseph Petzval threatened legal action, Voigtlander closed his Austrian plant in 1866.

Joseph Petzval could have then transferred the marketing, but he had renounced working with optics after his home was robbed in 1859 and worked instead on acoustics.

Joseph Petzval learned of the invention from his friend, Viennese professor Andreas von Ettingshausen.

Joseph Petzval's portrait objective lens was an almost distortionless Anachromatischer vierlinser.

In 1840, Joseph Petzval allowed the Viennese entrepreneur Peter Wilhelm Friedrich von Voigtlander to produce the lens for a one-time payment of 2,000 guldens, without a patent or a contract, which led later to a lasting controversy between Joseph Petzval and Voigtlander.

Joseph Petzval can be regarded as the inventor of the modern unastigmatic lens system, based on records from his estate.

Around 1860, Joseph Petzval conducted photogrammetric measurements using equipment he had designed.

Joseph Petzval proved scientifically that glowing solid compounds emit more light than burning gases.

Joseph Petzval's achievements are used today in cinematography, astronomy, and meteorology.

Joseph Petzval carried out fundamental work for the theory of aberration in optical systems.

Joseph Petzval's work was very thorough, but not completely satisfying, since he could not use an edge integration in order to invert the transformation.

Joseph Petzval wrote a paper in two volumes as well as a long work on this subject.

Joseph Petzval tried to represent practically everything in his environment mathematically.

Joseph Petzval developed a theory of the oscillations of strained strings as well as his own theory of tone systems.