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Posts from the ‘Personal’ category

24T87 Röntgen’s birth town, Lennep

(E86: Lennep b. Remscheid)

Engineer and physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen is known as the person who discovered X-ray radiation in 1895. Also called X-rays, they’re better known in German-speaking countries as “Röntgenstrahlung” (Röntgen radiation). The discovery would net Röntgen the world’s first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.

I’d seen a big display about Röntgen’s experiments and apparatus in Würzburg, but I’d learned a day trip from Cologne would take me to Röntgen’s birth town of Lennep.

*The house in Lennep where W.C. Röntgen was born. He was only here for a few years before the family moved to the Netherlands.*

*1920 commemorative plaque by the city of Lennep for this house.*

One of the 1st ever X-ray images: left hand of his wife Anna Ludwig Röntgen, 22 December 1895. Despite initial skepticism, one implication would soon be obvious: X-rays to examine and diagnose “inside” the body without having to “operate.”

*Not far from the Röntgen birth house is the Deutsches Röntgen Museum (German Röntgen Museum) with ‘X’ in front.*

*1901 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Röntgen: declaration in Swedish, one.*

*1901 Nobel Prize declaration in Swedish, two.*

*Siemens Stabilipan machine, with aluminium, copper, or thorium X-ray sources.*

*Replica, dentistry practice. (Zahnarzt = Zahn (tooth) + Arzt (doctor) = tooth doctor, or dentist.)*

*“Ich dachte nicht, ich untersuchte.” (I wasn’t thinking, I was investigating.)*

Lennep (as part of the larger Remscheid) can be reached by S7 train from either Solingen or Wuppertal; both in turn are easily reached from Köln.

I made the photos above with an iPhone15 on 2 Aug 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T86 Köln, latest observations

(E85)

I saw the grand church’s north tower the first time in 2002. Like all before and after who trickle out of the train station in surprise, the first time one lays eyes on Cologne Cathedral is memorable, because the churches of transport and of religion are adjacent, and the neck gets a little sore leaning back for a complete view.

In the time between for 22 years, I’ve been reacquainted many times with that kink in my neck. Fortunately, I’ve also been here enough to know there’s more to Cologne than “just” the cathedral.

*Bahnhofsvorplatz: standard view, number 1 (0.5x).*

*Bahnhofsvorplatz: standard view, number 2 (0.5x).*

*At a height of 266 metres (873 feet), the Colonius Fernmeldeturm (Telecommunications Tower) has been the city’s tallest structure since 1981.*

I made the photos above with an iPhone15 on 1 Aug 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T85 Köln: 22 years between then & now

(E84)

Through Y, I met Ö in Köln. And it’s through them, I became a fan of 1. FC Köln when they were in the Bundesliga’s 2nd Division. How times have changed, and in some instances, they haven’t; after relegation, #EffZeh are in the 2nd Division again for the 2024-2025 season.

I can now look back and marvel at the fact that I first came to Köln in 2002, and there’ve been more over the past 22 years. Double-digit total in visits: definitely. At least 20 times: likely. Catching up today after what’s happened the last number of years requires multiple mojitos.

*On the way to El Inca on Roonstrasse, in Köln Neustadt-Süd: 2012 mural by Debug Visuals.*

*Ö activating and booking the bike with mobile app as part of public transport, via Köln transport authority KVB.*

I made the photos above with an iPhone15 on 31 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T82 22 years between Santiago and Brühl

(E81)

I first met Y on the flight-journey and transatlantic long-haul from Santiago, Chile to Frankfurt am Main in 2002. Based in Heidelberg at the time, I was awarded some ESO telescope time in Chile, and after success collecting data, I was on the way back to Germany. Y spent months in Peru on alpaca research, and she was going back to Germany to complete her PhD program.

I’ve been to Köln many times since, to catch up with her. Now, 22 years forward to 2024, we’re reminiscing over beer at the new apartment Y shares with M in Brühl, located between Bonn and Köln. We marvel about the years gone by, common friends, and changes and turns the universe has thrown at us in that span of time.

*In the middle of comparing Google searches*.

*I probably said something dumb in German, and that’s gotta be my “D’OH!”*

I got in the first snap above; the remainder are by MW. This post for 28 Jul 2024 composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

My Vienna: Ludwig Boltzmann was here

The name is a large presence, particularly to many in science.

To others, the name might have little significance as any other name, like Helmut Grossuhrmacher. OK, I made that name up.

A name I didn’t make up is Ludwig Boltzmann, whose contributions to science are fundamental in an understanding of heat- or thermal-physics, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. After several years of undergraduate- and graduate-level physics, Boltzmann is one of many names imprinted into memory, firmly established in the left-side of my brain.

Boltzmann highlights

• b/✵ 20 February 1844 – d/✟ 5 September 1906.
• Born and raised in Vienna, Boltzmann enroled at age 19 in the University of Vienna to study mathematics and physics.
• Supervised by Josef Stefan, Boltzmann completed his doctoral dissertation “Über die mechanische Bedeutung des zweiten Hauptsatzes der mechanischen Wärmetheorie” (On the mechanical significance of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics) in 1866 at the age of 22.
• 1869–1873: University of Graz, with visits to Heidelberg and Berlin.
• 1873–1876: University of Vienna.
• 1876–1890: University of Graz.
• 1890–1894: (Ludwig Maximilian) University of Munich.
• 1894–1900: after Josef Stefan’s retirement, Boltzmann returns as professor of mathematics and physics at University of Vienna.
• 1900–1902: Leipzig University.
• 1902–1906: University of Vienna; he also teaches physics, mathematics, and philosophy.
• Doctoral students Boltzmann supervised and advised included: Paul Ehrenfest, Lise Meitner, Stefan Meyer, Walther Nernst.
• Speaking tour of the United States in 1905, including his stay that summer in Berkeley at the University of California. Evident from his trip report, Reise eines deutschen Professors ins Eldorado, is his sense of humour.

Time has been kind to Vienna, a city filled with notable personalities in arts, architecture, music, and science. Throughout its cemeteries, the city has assigned “graves of honour” (Ehrengrab) for many, including Boltzmann. Finding his final spot was one of many favourite moments in 2018. However, Boltzmann’s significance to the University of Vienna, to the physics world, and to time I spent in physics persuaded me to create a short (walking-)tour of Vienna to highlight some of his traces and memorialization in the city.

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