Hungarian physicist and Roman Catholic priest

The native form of this personal name is Jedlik Ányos István.:This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Ányos István Jedlik (Hungarian: Jedlik Ányos István; Slovak: Štefan Anián Jedlík; in older texts and publications: Latin: Steph* Ani* Jedlik; 11 January 1800:– 13 December 1895) was a Hungarian inventor, engineer, physicist, and Benedictine priest. He was also a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and author of several books. He is considered by Hungarians and Slovaks to be the unsung father of the dynamo and electric motor.

Contents

• 1 Career
• 2 Scientific work
  • 2.1 Invention of the Dynamo principle
  • 2.2 Optics
  • 2.3 Galvanic batteries and arc-lighting
• 3 Bibliography
  • 3.1 Books for university students
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Career

Jedlik and his cousin Gergely Czuczor in Győr

He was born in Szimő, Kingdom of Hungary (today Zemné, Slovakia). His parents were Ferenc Jedlik and Rozália Szabó. His mother was a member of a Hungarian noble family, while his paternal grandfather was of Slovak origin moving in 1720 from Liptó County to Szimő.

Jedlik's education began at high schools in Nagyszombat (today Trnava) and Pressburg (today Bratislava). In 1817 he became a Benedictine, and from that time continued his studies at the schools of that order, where he was known by his Latin name Steph* Ani*. He lectured at Benedictine schools up to 1839, then for 40 years at the Budapest University of Sciences department of physics-mechanics. Few guessed at that time that his activities would play an important part in bringing up a new generation of physicists. He became the dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1848, and by 1863 he was rector of the university. From 1858 he was a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and from 1873 was an honorary member. After his retirement, he continued working and spent his last years in complete seclusion at the priory in Győr, where he died.

Scientific work

Jedlik's "lightning-magnetic self-rotor", 1827 (the world's first electric motor) Jedlik's tubular voltage generator, which is probably the earliest impulse generator

In 1827, Jedlik started experimenting with electromagnetic rotating devices which he called lightning-magnetic self-rotors, and in 1828 he demonstrated the first device which contained the three main components of practical direct current motors: the stator, rotor, and commutator. In the prototype both the stationary and the revolving parts were electromagnetic. The first electromotor, built in 1828, and Jedlik's operating instructions are kept at the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest. The motor still works perfectly today. However, Jedlik only reported his invention decades later and the true date of it is uncertain (late December 1827 or early January of 1828).

He was a prolific author. In 1845, Jedlik was the first university professor in the Kingdom of Hungary who began teaching his students in Hungarian instead of Latin. His cousin Gergely Czuczor, a Hungarian linguist, asked him to create a Hungarian technical vocabulary in physics, the first of its kind, by which he became one of its founders.

He was ahead of his contemporaries in his scientific work, but he did not speak about his most important invention, his prototype dynamo, until 1856; it was not until 1861 that he mentioned it in writing in a list of inventory of the university. Although that do*ent might serve as evidence of Jedlik's being the first dynamo, the invention of the dynamo is linked to Siemens's name because Jedlik's invention did not rise to notice at that time.

In 1863 he discovered the possibility of voltage multiplication and in 1868 demonstrated it with a "tubular voltage generator", which was successfully displayed at the Vienna World Exposition in 1873. It was an early form of the impulse generators now applied in nuclear research.The jury of the World Exhibition of 1873 (chaired by Ernst Werner von Siemens) in Vienna awarded his voltage multiplying condenser of cascade connection with a prize "For Development". Through this condenser, Jedlik framed the principle of surge generation by cascaded connection. (The cascade connection was another important invention of Ányos Jedlik)

Invention of the Dynamo principle

Jedlik's best known invention is the principle of dynamo self-excitation.

In 1827, Jedlik started experimenting with electromagnetic rotating devices which he called electromagnetic self-rotors. It replaced the permanent magnet designs in the industry.

In the prototype of the single-pole electric starter, both the stationary and the revolving parts were electromagnetic. In essence, the concept is that instead of permanent magnets, two opposed electromagnets induce the magnetic field around the rotor. He formulated the concept of the self-excited dynamo about 1861, six years before Siemens and Wheatstone.

As one side of the coil p*es in front of the north pole, crossing the line of force, a current is induced. As the frame rotates further the current diminishes, then arriving at the front of the south pole it rises again but flows in the opposite direction. The frame is connected to a commutator, thus the current always flows in the same direction in the external circuit.

Optics

In 1814, Joseph von Fraunhofer discovered that heated materials emit light in specific colour ranges. But to *yse the resulting lines accurately, a continuous spectrum was needed. Since Newton, this has been solved by resolving white light with a prism. However, optical gratings were used to obtain a more useful, broader spectrum. Not satisfied with the instruments available at the time, Jedlik set about designing a new machine, which became a continuous development effort that lasted for three decades. In the meantime, the instrument maker working for him essentially laid the foundations of Hungarian fine mechanical instrument making. In the early 1840s, grids with 300-400 strokes per millimetre appeared abroad. However, the spacing of the lines was not uniform, so they did not produce a perfect colour image.

Jedlik's aim was therefore not to increase the number of lines, but to make the spacing of the scratches even. By 1860 he had a machine that worked accurately. It took about 10 seconds to draw a line, after which the needle would rise and the machine would push the point corresponding to the end of the next line under the needle. It took several days to complete a single grid - 12 000 lines - so he used another of his inventions, the electric motor, to drive the machine. The machine worked automatically, powered by electric motor. He made several types of grids: linear, cross and circular. The production of the grids required a great deal of chemical knowledge and experimentation (the gl* was fine-coated, scratched and the scratched surface etched) until Jedlik found the most suitable materials. His excellent optical gratings became known and sought after. An optician in Paris, from whom Jedlik had once bought a clockwork arc lamp, became the main distributor. Jedlik's gratings won the respect of experts for their precision and high brightness. They helped to achieve a wavelength resolution of the spectrum below nanometres (10-9 m). Its optical gratings, with more than 2,000 lines per millimetre, were still used for spectroscopy even in the 1960s.

Galvanic batteries and arc-lighting

From the 1840s, Jedlik began to work on improving the batteries because of the high power requirements of arc-lighting. By studying the best batteries of the time, the Bunsen elements, he realised that he could achieve his goal by reducing the internal resistance. Instead of the single-acid immersion batteries he had been using, he created two-fluid batteries in which the two types of acid were separated first by clay fragments and later by impregnated paper. He sent such elements to the 1855 Paris World Exhibition, but they were destroyed by careless transport. The committee was only able to examine a few intact cells, and these were found to have a higher energy density than the original Bunsen cells. This result was rewarded with a bronze medal, and a plant was set up in Pest to manufacture them. His batteries become well known and sought after the exhibition, and were exported to Paris and even Constantinople. He also demonstrated the batteries and arc lamp lighting in Pannonhalma in 1856.

"In the evening, we presented the 22-piece electric battery farm of Jedlik in the quadrangle courtyard of the ancient monastery of Pannonhalma. Despite of the full moon, the light was so strong and the church became so bright that the steeple seemed to be "on fire" and the villagers of Szentmárton were already rushing towards the hill with buckets in their hands to put out the "fire."

Bibliography

Drawn plan of a "telephon" by Ányos Jedlik in Hungarian. Pannonhalma Archabbey, Kingdom of Hungary.

Books for university students

Jedlik's bust in his native village of Zemné

The following are all given in the Hungarian Electronic Library:

1. Tentamen publi* e Physica ... ex Ins*utine primi semestris Aniani Jedlik (in Latin). Pozsony. 1839.
2. Tentamen publi* e Physica quod in regia univers. Hung. e praelectionibus (in Latin). Pest: Trattner-Károlyi. 1845.
3. Mathesis adplicata (in Latin). Pest: Kőnyomat.
4. Compendium Hydrostaticae et Hydrodinamicae usibus Auditorum Suorum adaptatum per Anianum Jedlik (in Latin). Pest: Kőnyomat. 1847.
5. Elements of natural science. Vol.:16. Pest: Eisinfels. 1850.
6. Viznyugtanhoz tartozó Pótlékok (in Hungarian). Pest: Kőnyomat. 1850.
7. Goldsmith, Irta (1851). Ányos Jedlik (ed.). Fénytan (in Hungarian). Pest: Kőnyomat.
8. Goldsmith, Irta (1990) . Ányos Jedlik (ed.). Hőtan (in Hungarian). Budapest: Műszaki Könyvkiadó.

Contributions by Jedlik in other works:

1. Vagács, Caesar, ed. (1854). "A hévmérő s kellékei" . Olvasmány a főgymnasiumi középosztályok (in Hungarian). Hartleben. pp.:259–261.
2. ibid., pp.:256–258
3. Német – magyar tudományos műszótár a csász. kir. gymnasiumok és reáliskolák számára (in German and Hungarian). Vol.:VIII. Pest: Hekenast. 1858.
4. "Ueber die Anwendung des Elektro-Magnetes bei elektro-dynamischen Rotationen" . Aemtlicher Bericht über die *II. Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte zu Wien im Sept. 1856 (in German). Vienna. 1858. pp.:170–175.
5. "Modification der Grove'schen und Bunsen'schen Batterie" . Aemtlicher Bericht über die *II. Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte zu Wien im Sept. 1856 (in German). Vienna. 1858. pp.:176–178.
6. Egyetemes Magyar Encyclopaedia (in Hungarian). Vol.:1–13. Pest: Szent István Társulat. 1859–1876.

See also

• List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics

References

1. Károly Simonyi: History of the Hungarian physic
2. Wagner, Francis S. (1977). Hungarian Contributions to World Civilization. Bratislava: Alpha Publications. ISBN:978-0-912404-04-2.
3. Denton, Tom (2004). Automobile Electrical and Electronic Systems. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN:978-0-7506-6219-2.
4. "Bulletin of the International Committee of Historical Sciences". International Committee of Historical Sciences (Presses Universitaires de France). 1933.
5. Pledge, H. T. (2007). Science since 1500: A Short History of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology. London: Read Books. ISBN:978-1-4067-6872-5.

External links

• Biography (in Hungarian)
• Jedlik Biography
• Jedlik honored on Hungarian coin
• Jedlik motor (YouTube video)
• Jedlik's electric motor (YouTube video)
• Scientist of the Day – Ányos Jedlik at Linda Hall Library