Helmholtz
the aesthete
Helmholtz was a well-rounded person who enjoyed reading
As David Cahan wrote in the book
he edited—Hermann von Helmholtz
and the Foundations of Nineteenth
Century Science—Helmholtz
elucidated several aspects of the
civilizing power of science. He
pointed out that the process of
science provides the foundation for
an aesthetic life, and that science
could unite people into a cohesive
community that would work for the
common social benefit to help build
a nation-state. He also noted that
science presents humanity with
a path toward understanding the
natural world and our place in it.
Hermann von Helmholtz
by Hans Schadow
Wikimedia Commons
literature
and making
frequent
visits to art
museums,
theaters and
concerts.
He was
particularly
interested
in painting,
sculpture
and music.
He played
the piano
from his boyhood to medical school
and in his later life in Berlin—and
that perhaps inspired his seminal
investigations into physiological
acoustics, the anatomy and
physiology of the human voice,
the human ear and the perception
of sound.
While he did not paint himself, he
had many friends who were painters,
and he taught anatomy at the Berlin
Kunstakademie for one year. His
profound interest in art paralleled
his investigations of physical and
physiological optics, and he was a
leader in the field of experimental
optics and human vision.
that time in retinal diagnostics to Helmholtz’s invention.
Helmholtz also invented the ophthalmometer, an instrument that measures
the curvature of the cornea and the anterior and posterior surface of the ocular lens.
This instrument was used in his studies
of changes in the shape of the ocular lens
and its role in accommodation (change
of the eye’s focus).
Around the same time that Helmholtz invented the ophthalmoscope, he
met William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin). They remained lifelong friends. In
1852, his second child, Richard Wilhelm
Ferdinand, was born. A year later, Helmholtz embarked on his first trip abroad,
in which he attended the meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement
of Science in London.
Anatomy, acoustics and
physiological optics
Then, in 1855, Helmholtz accepted
an offer to become a full professor of
anatomy and physiology at the University
of Bonn. In the three years that he taught
anatomy, he also completed important
work in acoustics: He derived laws for the
combination of separate tones and beats.
He posited that the nonlinear response
of the ear drum or other sound detectors
could explain the phenomena. A year
later—at the age of 37—he published
the physical and mathematical principles
that explained musical harmony. At that
time, Helmholtz moved to the University
of Heidelberg and accepted the position
of professor of physiology. He remained
there from 1858 to 1871, during which
he published his seminal papers on the
mathematical theory of air vibrations in
open pipes and the organ.
In 1859, Helmholtz experienced
two devastating losses: Both his father
and his wife died. In the wake of this
double blow, he took a hiatus of several
months in his scientific work. When he
recovered, he began his fundamental
investigations into physiological optics.
His monumental body of work on this
topic was published in the three volumes
of Helmholtz’s Physiological Optics.
Helmholtz’s early experimental work
was focused on a broad program aimed
to help people understand physiological
processes in terms of the chemical and
physical laws that were their foundation
as well as the physical and the philosoph-
ical basis of sensory physiology.
Later years
His peripatetic academic lifestyle had
come to an end; Helmholtz remained
in Berlin until his death in 1894. The
University of Berlin was funded by
Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1810. From
1828, it was called the Frederick William
University, and in 1949 it became the
Humboldt University in honor of its
founder Wilhelm and his brother Alexander von Humboldt—the great explorer
and naturalist.
At the University of Berlin, his scientific investigations into electrodynamics,
acoustics and thermodynamics continued
