The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Magnus, Heinrich Gustav

MAGNUS, Heinrich Gustav, a German chemist, born in Berlin, May 2, 1802, died there, April 4, 1870. He graduated at the university of Berlin in 1827, where he became in 1834 extraordinary, and in 1845 ordinary professor of physics and technology. In 1828 he discovered the compound formed of the elements of chloride of platinum and of ammonia, the first of a series of combinations of the same substances, and known as the green salt of Magnus. He afterward published “Researches on Capillarity” and observations upon evaporation in capillary tubes. Almost simultaneously Magnus and Regnault made public the results of their experiments upon the coefficient of the dilatation of gases, the former on Nov. 25, 1841, and the latter on Dec. 13, 1841. In 1860-'61 Magnus published his experiments on the transmission of heat through gases in the double aspect of conductibility and radiation, which led to a protracted controversy with Tyndall. His last publication was a memoir on the emission, absorption, and reflection of heat by bodies at low temperatures. His lectures continued till near the close of his life, and for their illustration he formed the physical cabinet of the university.