Joseph von Fraunhofer
Fast Facts Born 6 March 1787 in Straubing Youngest of 11 children Father was glass grinder Both parents died when he was 12 Went to do apprenticeship for mirror maker and lens grinder
Apprentice Worked for two years under harsh conditions 21 July 1801, the house he worked in collapsed Maximilian Joseph and Joseph Utzschneider were present King Max I King Max I Politician who retired to build optics Politician who retired to build optics
Post-Rescue Max gave him some money, he bought a glass cutting machine and grinder Utzschneider gave him books and talked about optics Continued to work for his old master for four more years Worked for Georg Reichenbach and Utzschneider in Munich in 1806
1814 Utz and Fraunhofer went into business together making lenses Fraunhofer calculated, designed and tested every instrument, and wrote the manuals Died on 7 June 1826, buried in Munich
Accomplishments Development and improvement of optical glass Spectrum analysis- light and dark lines Measured a few hundred of the lines and labeled the more prominent ones A-Z Built diffraction grating and used it to measure the wavelengths of specific colors
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