Wilhelm Lambrecht
Wilhelm Lambrecht (3 August 1834, Wolbrechtshausen – 17 June 1904, Göttingen) was a German builder of measuring instruments.
After doing his exams Lambrecht began a 5 year apprenticeship as a mechanic in Einbeck. The handling with the measuring instruments which where, despite of their heaviness, less robust and built quite complicate and bulky at this time, sparked Lambrecht’s interest in instrument building and revealed his special talent during his apprenticeship. In the following 5 years of his journeyman’s travel he worked in well-known factories in Paris and Berlin, came back to Einbeck and went into business for himself. In 1864 he went to Göttingen, opened a factory and met the chemist Friedrich Wöhler and the physician L. Weber very soon.
In 1867, when he came back from the world exhibition in Paris and brought the first chromic acid cell with him, he also met the astronomer Wilhelm Klinkerfues. Klinkerfues had developed a bifilar-hygrometer which was widely-used but did not prove in laymen hands. After that Lambrecht build a hair hygrometer „Model Klinkerfues”. In 1873, after separation from Klinkerfues, he started to build new meteorological instruments such as polymeters, dew point monitors, aspiration psychrometers and so on. His weather telegraphs, weather columns and combinations of different meteorological instruments where in use at several bigger cities and foreign health resorts before 1st World War. Additionally Lambrecht engaged in construction and building of medical thermometers. At the same time he developed the so called minimum thermometer with a narrowing of the lumen of the capillary which is placed above the mercury container. The precision instruments of Lambrecht are well-known all over the world.[1][2]
Basic data:
- 24 July 1859 Foundation of a fine mechanical factory in Einbeck
- 1867 Invention of thermo-hygroscope (combination hair hygrometer and bimetal)
- 1875 Invention of table hygrometer
- 1876 Invention of standard barometer
- 1877 Invention of polymeter
References
- ↑ Karl Keil (1982), "Lambrecht, Wilhelm", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German) 13, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 443, (full text online)
- ↑ Wilhelm Lambrecht - Göttingen. Website der Freunde alter Wetterinstrumente. Abgerufen am 11. Februar 2012.