Friday, September 28, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The piano chemist
So, who is this forgotten musician chemist?
As far as I know he was not able to play an instrument very well and was not singing opera in the evening. It is the man who is the probably only chemist who has a named musical instument.
Behold the Bechstein-Siemens-Nernst grand piano!
This piano was named after these guys
Carl Bechstein (with a moustache growing out of his nose), Werner von Siemens (nice 'only on the cheeks moustache') and the chemist Walther Nernst (with his perpetual pince-nez)
The Bechstein-Siemens-Nernst grand piano (or neo-Bechstein piano) was one of the first electric pianos. Invented by Nernst with the help of the Bechstein company for the piano and the Siemens company for elecrical parts.
The strings vibrate in a magnetic field which produces an electric current in the coil around the magnet.
A radio amplifier is used to produce an electronically modified sound which comes out of the speaker of a connected phonograph. The piano sounded like an electric guitar.
Nernst started to build single string models in the lab.
In 1930 Bechstein introduced the piano on the market and Nernst could fidget with the real thing.
It was not a big succes, but a named musical instrument is more unique than a named fractioning column or a named condensor.
As far as I know he was not able to play an instrument very well and was not singing opera in the evening. It is the man who is the probably only chemist who has a named musical instument.
Behold the Bechstein-Siemens-Nernst grand piano!
This piano was named after these guys
Carl Bechstein (with a moustache growing out of his nose), Werner von Siemens (nice 'only on the cheeks moustache') and the chemist Walther Nernst (with his perpetual pince-nez)
The Bechstein-Siemens-Nernst grand piano (or neo-Bechstein piano) was one of the first electric pianos. Invented by Nernst with the help of the Bechstein company for the piano and the Siemens company for elecrical parts.
The strings vibrate in a magnetic field which produces an electric current in the coil around the magnet.
A radio amplifier is used to produce an electronically modified sound which comes out of the speaker of a connected phonograph. The piano sounded like an electric guitar.
Nernst started to build single string models in the lab.
In 1930 Bechstein introduced the piano on the market and Nernst could fidget with the real thing.
It was not a big succes, but a named musical instrument is more unique than a named fractioning column or a named condensor.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Musician and painter chemist
A lot of comments on Top 5 lists say :"Hey you forgot ...". Most of the time we did not forget that chemist but a disadvantage of a Top 5 list is that there can only be 5 chemists on a Top 5 list. (Sometimes we did forget someone who really should be on it ofcourse).
The next post will be about someone who should have been on the Top 5 musician chemists.
I hope to post it soon but the other author unavailable right now and I'm quite busy.
I can tell you this. It is not about an amature musician chemist.
Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted singing with his barytone voice (and could play the piano) and his wife playing the piano, performing at home.
Brønsted was a painter as well.
The next post will be about someone who should have been on the Top 5 musician chemists.
I hope to post it soon but the other author unavailable right now and I'm quite busy.
I can tell you this. It is not about an amature musician chemist.
Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted singing with his barytone voice (and could play the piano) and his wife playing the piano, performing at home.
Brønsted was a painter as well.
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