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Posts tagged ‘Vienna’

Vienna: physicist Erwin Schrödinger

(T60 E59 V26)

In 1933, the Nobel Prize Foundation awarded the physics prize jointly to Dr. Erwin Schrödinger and Dr. Paul Dirac for their development of techniques to solve problems in the burgeoning field of atomic physics. Schrödinger established the system of wave mechanics to study the motion within atoms and molecules. The mathematical forms for the wave properties of matter directly led to solutions as well as further insights in modern atomic physics.

The following images show some of the places where Schrödinger (1887–1961) spent time in his work- and home-life: traces he left behind in Vienna. He and his wife are buried in the Tirolean town of Alpbach.

University of Vienna (1.)

*Next to the Ringstraße is the University of Vienna main building by **Heinrich Ferstel** and inaugurated in 1884.*

*Erwin’s youthful gaze is part of the university’s display of its Nobel Prize laureates.*

*Memorial statue in Arkadenhof: Erwin Schrödinger’s equation in quantum mechanics is what Newton’s equation “F = ma” is to classical mechanics.*

(2nd) Institute of Physics (9.)

*Former location of the (second) Physics Institute, 1875 to 1913*.

*Memorial plaque on the exterior wall, in recognition of some of the scientists who once worked at the Physics Institute, including Stefan, Boltzmann, Meyer, Meitner, Hess, and Schrödinger.*

Schrödinger Residence (9.)

*Building address Pasteurgasse 4, where Schrödinger lived for a number of years, near the Strudlhofstiege staircase.*

*Memorial plaque at Pasteurgasse 4: “University of Vienna professor, physicist, and Nobel Prize laureate Erwin Schrödinger lived in this building from 1956 to 1961.”*

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 6 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-t9q.

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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Nussberg, 19. Bezirk, Döbling, Wien, Vienna, Austria, Österreich, fotoeins.com

23 for 23: Foto(ein)s in 2023

Above/featured: Vienna’s green vineyards on Nussberg, with Kahlenberg at centre in the background. Photo, 14 Jun 2023.

A year in review typically provides coverage spanning a period of six months or more; the period doesn’t even have to be a continuous stretch. But in this case, my highlights come solely from a period of six weeks in May and June. All else pales by comparison.

All of the images presented below have been corrected for geometric distortion and rotation, with further adjustments to image-crop, brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows, clarity, sharpness, vibrance, saturation, and colour levels. These images are as always best viewed on screens larger than a miniscule mobile.

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Vienna: Heinrich Ferstel’s architectural legacy

Above/featured: Entrance into the Ferstel Passage (Ferstelpalais, Herrengasse 14). Photo, 2 Jun 2023 (X70).

The following structures in the city of Vienna share something (and someone) in common:

• Café Central,
• the University of Vienna,
• Votive Church, and
• the Museum for Applied Arts.

These buildings were all designed by Viennese architect Heinrich Ferstel. His architectural works left a deep and lasting impression on the city and her residents. What follows is a brief life summary and highlights from a number of his projects.

• born/✵ 7 Jul 1828 – died/✟ 14 Jul 1883.
• One of many architects contributing to the development of Vienna’s “Ringstrasse.”
• 1843–1847: student at Imperial & Royal Polytechnic Institute.
• 1850: completed studies at Architekturschule der Akademie der bildenden Künste (Architectural School, Academy of Fine Arts) under Carl Rösner, Eduard van der Nüll, August Sicard von Sicardsburg.
• 1866: appointed Professor of Architecture at Polytechnic Institute; subsequently, dean 1866–1870; rector 1880–1881 after institute became the Technical University in 1872.
• 1872: founded the Cottageverein (Cottage Association) for the construction of English-style family homes in the Währing district.

… Prolific Austrian architect. He (Ferstel) designed the twin-towered Gothic Revival Votivkirche (1856–1882) and various other Historicist buildings, including the vast Italian Renaissance Revival University (1873–1884) in Vienna. Much of his important work (where the influence of Semper is often clear) was done for the area adjoining the Ringstrasse, but he also designed many buildings throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. An advocate of housing reform, he admired English low-density developments, which influenced the Cottageverein (Cottage Association), Vienna (1872–1874), responsible for building small single-family houses. Ferstel also promoted the laying out of the Türkenschanzpark, a public park on English lines (from 1883) …

— from “A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture”

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My Fuji X70: Kodak Color Negative (XTrans2 recipe)

Above/featured: Taunusanlage train station, Frankfurt am Main – 18 Jun 2023.

The Fujifilm X70 mirrorless fixed-lens prime camera has added a lot to my approach to photography for projects in domestic and international scope. To satisfy my curiosity about Fujifilm’s analog-film simulation (film-sim) recipes, I’ve provided examples of X70 images with the following recipes:

• CineStill 800T
• Ektachrome 100SW (saturated warm)
• Fujichrome Slide
• Kodachrome 64
• Kodacolor
• Kodak Platinum 200
• Monochrome Red

Here I show images made with the “Kodak Color Negative” recipe, which Ritchie Roesch describes in Fuji X Weekly:

… The aesthetic that I was hoping to achieve with this recipe was Kodak Portra 400. I don’t believe that I succeeded in faithfully mimicking that (sometimes there’s a similarity); however, it does seem to produce a Kodak-like color negative film look, perhaps more like Ultramax, but not exactly that, either. Whatever it does or doesn’t resemble, I personally really like the aesthetic produced by this recipe …

The recipe is for X-Trans II sensors and the built-in availability of “Classic Chrome”. The settings on my X70 are:

“Classic Chrome” built-in film-sim
Dynamic Range: DR200
Color: +2 (High)
Sharpness: -1 (Medium-Soft)
Highlight: -2 (Soft)
Shadow: -1 (Medium-Soft)
Noise Reduction: -2 (Low)
White Balance: Incandescent; +6 Red, -7 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to 3200

I assigned this recipe for my “indoor” setting as 1 of the 7 camera’s custom presets, but the recipe’s versatility allowed for additional tests at outside locations. The following JPG images are “almost” straight-out-of-the-camera: only minor adjustments to brightness level and a crop to a predefined image size have been applied, with no corrections to colour, contrast, geometric distortion, or rotation. The blue (“cool”) colour-cast is very real, which is especially evident on images made outdoors under sunny conditions.

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