LAMONT, JOHANN VON (18051879)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 131 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: KRO-LAP

LAMONT, JOHANN VON (18051879) , Scottish-German astronomer and magnetician, was born at Braemar, Aberdeen-shire, on the 13th of December 1805. He was sent at the age of twelve to be educated at the Scottish monastery in Regensburg, and apparently never afterwards returned to his native country. His strong bent for scientific studies was recognized by the head of the monastery, P. Deasson, on whose recommendation he was admitted in 1827 to the then new

observatory

OBSERVATORY

of Bogenhausen (near

Munich

MUNICH (Ger. Munchen)

), where he worked under J. Soldner. After the death of his

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

in 1835 he was, on H. C. Schumacher's recommendation, appointed to succeed him as director of the

observatory

OBSERVATORY

. In 1852 he became professor of astronomy at the university of

Munich

MUNICH (Ger. Munchen)

, and held both these posts till his death, which took place on the 6th of August 1879.

Lamont

LAMONT, JOHANN VON (1805–1879)

was a member of the academies of Brussels,

Upsala

UPSALA, or UPPSALA

and Prague, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the

Cambridge

Philosophical Society and of many other learned corporations. Among his contributions to astronomy may be noted his eleven zone-catalogues of 34,674 stars, his measurements, in 1836-1837, of nebulae and clusters, and his determination of the

mass

of Uranus from observations of its satellites (Mem. Astron. Soc. xi. 51, 1838). A magnetic observatory was equipped at Bogen-
Atlas range the food of this bird is said to consist chiefly of the Testudo mauritanica, which " it carries to some height in the air, and lets fall on a stone to break the shell " (

Ibis

IBIS

, 1859, p. 177). It was the Apra and 44v,1 of Greek classical writers.
hausen in 1840 through his initiative; he executed comprehensive magnetic surveys 18491858; announced the magnetic decennial period in 185o, and his discovery of earth-currents in 1862. His Handbuch des Erdmagnetismus (Berlin, 1849) is a standard

work

WORK

on the subject.
See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (S. Gunther); V. J. Schrift, Astr. Gesellschaft, xv. 6o; Monthly Notices Roy. Astr. Society, xl. 203; Nature, xx. 425; Quart.

Journal

JOURNAL
JOURNAL (through Fr. from late Lat. diurnalis, daily)

Meteor. Society, vi. 72; Proceedings Roy. Society of Edinburgh, x. 358; The Times (12 Aug., 1879); Sir F. Ronalds's Cat. of Books relating to Electricity and Magnetism, pp. 281-283; Royal Society's Cat, of Scientific Papers, vols. iii. vii.

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