Johann Georg Tralles

Johann George Tralles (October 15, 1763 – November 19, 1822) was a German mathematician and physicist.

He was born in Hamburg, Germany, and was educated at the University of Göttingen beginning in 1783. He became a professor at the University of Bern in 1785. In 1810 he became a professor of mathematics at the University of Berlin.

In 1798 he served as the Swiss representative to the French metric convocation, and was a member of its committee on weights and measures. An iron "committee" meter, a duplicate of the prototype archive meter, was then given as a gift to Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler. From 1803 until 1805 these two men worked together on a topological survey of the Canton of Bern.

He was the inventor of the "alcoholmeter", a device for measuring the amount of alcohol in a liquid.

He died in London, England. Tralles crater on the Moon is named for him, as is the "alcoholmeter" he invented.

Bibliography

* "Der erste Ordinarius für Mathematik an der Universität Berlin", Eine Edition seiner Antrittsvorlesung, 1810.
* "Beytrag zur Lehre von der Elektrizität" Bern, Haller, 1786

External links

* [http://www.lib.noaa.gov/edocs/HASSLER1.htm Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler and the United States Coast Survey] , including his early work with Tralles.
* [http://www.bbaw.de/archivbbaw/archivbestaende/abtnachlaesse/cvnachlaesse/tralles_johann.html Tralles, Johann Georg] , Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften.