Zirkel
Zirkel, Ferdinand.
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Significant early contribution to petrography, the microscopic study of rocks.
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
None.
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH:
20th May 1838, in Bonn, Germany.
DATE/PLACE/AGE AT DEATH:
12th June 1912, in Bonn, Germany. Aged 74.
DISCIPLINE:
Geologist.
FIELD:
Petrography and mineralogy.
LANGUAGE:
German.
PARENTS:
Joseph Zirkel and ?
SIBLINGS:
One sister.
SPOUSE:
None.
CHILDREN:
None.
EDUCATION:
Bonn Gymnasium; University of Bonn, 1855-60.
MAJOR WORK:
'Lehrbuch der Petrographie' ('Manual of Petrography'), 1866.
LIFE AND TIMES:
In 1860, Zirkel travelled to the Faeroes and Iceland, and on his return journey spent some time in Scotland and England, where he studied the major ore deposits. In March 1861, he gained his doctorate with a dissertation entitled 'De Geognostica Islandiae Constitutione Observationes', based on his collection of volcanic rocks from Iceland. In the summer of the same year, he took a holiday in the Rhine valley, where he met the English petrologist and metallurgist Sorby*.
Sorby was the first to study rocks in thin sections under the microscope, using a method first developed by the geologist Nicol*, and then used in the study of fossil trees by Witham* in the 1830s.
This proved to be a meeting of vital importance for Zirkel's career, as it was from this point that he abandoned his original intention of becoming a mining geologist. Sorby told Zirkel about the development of the basic techniques of petrography, the study of rocks in thin section by means of a petrographic microscope.
This was an instrument that employed polarized light vibrating in a single plane. Sorby described to him how to prepare the sections of rock for study under the microscope, and advised him to pursue the investigation of the field, of which Zirkel would as a result become a fellow-founder of the science of microscopical petrography.
Late in 1861, Zirkel moved to Vienna, where, across the next two years, he composed a monograph on bournomite and a paper which amplified Sorby's discovery of fluid inclusions in minerals. As a result of this early systematic work, in 1863 Zirkel was appointed associate professor of mineralogy at Lemberg, now Lvov, University in the Ukraine, and he became full professor in 1865. The first edition of his famous 'Lehrbuch der Petrographie' was published the following year.
In 1868, Zirkel became professor of mineralogy at the University of Kiel, and two years later he took the chair of mineralogy at the University of Leipzig. The same year, he published 'Inquiry into the Microscopic Composition and Structure of Basaltic Minerals.' This was followed in 1873 by 'The Microscopic Nature of Minerals and Rocks,' which made the new method of study widely available.
While at Leipzig in the 1870s, Zirkel was asked by the noted American geologist Clarence King to study the rocks collected during the survey of the 40th parallel in the western US. In 1876, he wrote the fourth volume of the survey report, introducing microscopic petrography into the United States.
Zirkel stayed with the University of Leipzig until 1909. During this time, he revised his 'Lehrbuch' and published the new edition in three large volumes (1893-94). During 1894 and 1895, Zirkel visited Ceylon and the United States.
He was given an honorary doctorate by Oxford University in 1907, and was a member of many European academies of science, as well as serving as rector of the University of Leipzig. He retired in 1909, and went home to Bonn.
ASSESSMENT: His book, 'Lehrbuch der Petrographie', was the first, and, for a long time, the only complete handbook of petrography. It is now considered one of the classics of geology.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None.
ONELINER: F Zirkel, early petrologist
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB, DSB.