Nernst
Nernst, Walther Hermann.
ACHIEVEMENTS: The third law of thermodynamics.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None.
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: 25th June 1864, in Briesen, Germany.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: 18th November 1941, in Muskau, Germany. Aged 77.
DISCIPLINE: Physicist and chemist.
FIELD: Physics and chemistry.
LANGUAGE: German.
PARENTS: Father, Gustav Nernst, mother, Ottilie Nerger.
SIBLINGS: 2.
SPOUSE: Emma Lohmeyer.
CHILDREN: 2 sons, 3 daughters.
EDUCATION: High school, Graudenz; Zurich University, Switzerland; Graz University, Austria; Wurzburg University, Germany.
MAJOR WORK: ‘Theoretical Chemistry’, 1893; ‘The Foundations of the New Heat Theorem’, 1917.
LIFE AND TIMES: Early in his studies, Nernst decided to focus on the application of physics to chemistry. In Berlin, he went to lectures on thermodynamics given by Helmholtz* and at Graz he studied under Boltzmann*.
In 1887, he took a job assisting Ostwald*, the professor at Leipzig University who had been successful in establishing physical chemistry as a separate discipline.
In his first year at Leipzig, Nernst published his own derivation of the law of diffusion for electrolytes. He recognised that electrochemistry could bring together Boltzmann's atomistic ideas and the classical thermodynamics developed by Helmholtz.
In 1891, Nernst became an associate Professor of Physics at the University of
Gottingen. Two years later, he published ‘Theoretical Chemistry’, a textbook that became the standard reference work on physical chemistry and was translated into English, French and Russian.
In 1894, he was persuaded to stay at Gottingen by the offer of a full professorship and a new Institute for Physical Chemistry, the only one in Germany apart from Ostwald's in Leipzig.
Now with a world-wide reputation, Nernst pulled a group of international scientists together, who all pooled their discoveries and who accepted that the results of their work would be used as directed by Nernst. As pioneers in a new discipline, they developed experimental innovations and original designs for apparatus.
Nernst ventured into the application of new technology and one of his inventions, a type of electric lamp, made him a fortune when a new company, AEG, bought the patent.
In 1905, Nernst went to the University of Berlin, where he succeeded Hans Landolt in the chair of Physical Chemistry. He went there on the recommendation of < impressed> Planck*, who was impressed by his work in electrochemistry and thought that Nernst had the energy and talent to rebuild Berlin's reputation in chemistry.
Nernst began to branch out from the disciplines already laid down by Helmholtz and others. He pioneered experiments into the application of classical thermodynamics for chemical equilibrium and also in chemical kinetics.
At the end of his first term in Berlin, he went back to Gottingen and delivered a paper on heat, which was his first formulation of the third law of thermodynamics, the first and second laws being the conservation and transformation of energy. For almost all of the next decade, Nernst worked on providing a viable theory of how chemical reactions could be calculated from thermal data.
In 1910, he went to see Einstein* in Zurich and they talked about the relevance of Einstein's work in specific heats to his own experiments. The following year, Nernst worked with the young British scientist, Lindemann* and demonstrated that Einstein's specific heat equation largely agreed with his own data.
Between 1905 and 1913, Nernst, who had a great interest in the automobile, published investigations into the efficiency of the internal combustion engine.
When World War I began, Nernst was co-opted into war work and joined the voluntary drivers' corps, taking part in the rapid German advance into France in 1914. He was a technical adviser to the army and the government, becoming involved in military administration and chemical gas warfare. He then worked on explosives and the development of the trench mortar.
In 1917, he wrote a monograph on the foundations of the third law of thermodynamics and after that, he left it for others to clear up any data which appeared to contradict it. One of his students, F E Simon, devoted his life to establishing the law.
After the war, Nernst explored the application of chemistry to industrial and experimental projects and worked in photochemistry, chemical kinetics and chemical astrophysics. Berlin became a centre for scientific activity again. There were other chemical research establishments, but in the 1920s, the main centre for physical sciences was Berlin, and Nernst, who had been given the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1920, was seen as its leader.
He became involved in new studies in radiation, quantum chemistry, radioactivity, and cosmic rays, and he was always on the lookout for technical inventions and particularly interested in electronic music. In 1922, he invented a small instrument that was magnetically controlled and amplified, and could replicate the sound of a grand piano. It was developed with the help of the Siemens engineering company and Bechstein, the piano makers.
Nernst became interested in astrophysics and in the search for undiscovered processes
of energy production in the universe. He took the job of President of the National
Physical Laboratory, but after two years of falling out with the resident civil servants, he went back to academic life.
In the 1920s, Nernst didn’t make any great contributions to the development of physics, but he studied the work of other scientists, such as Schrodinger’s* theories on wave mechanics.
After the rise of the Nazis in 1933, Nernst fell out of favor. Nazis in the Berlin Academy were keen to discredit Einstein, a Jew, but Nernst refused to co-operate. The other black mark against him was the fact that two of his daughters had married Jews. In the face of government distrust, Nernst retired in 1934.
ASSESSMENT: His discovery of the third law of thermodynamics was a fundamental step in physics..
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None.
ONELINER: Walther Nernst, discoverer of the third law of thermodynamics
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
Mendelssohn, Kurt AG, The World of Walther Nernst, Macmillan, 1973.