01 Schmidt, Bernhard
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Schmidt, Bernhard (1879-1935)
Bernhard Schmidt was born on March, 30th 1879 as the first of 5
children
to Karl Konstantin and his wife, Maria Helene. K.K. Schmidt was a
writer
on the island of Naissaar, which is off the coast of Tallinn, Estonia,
in the Baltic Sea. He was also a farmer and fisherman. Swedish was the
language spoken on the island and in school, but at home the Schmidts
spoke
German. At the age of 15, Bernhard lost his right hand and forearm in
an
accident that happened in an experiment with gunpowder. This did not
prove
too much of a handicap, though; later that year he built his own
camera,
photographed the local people and sold the pictures.
In 1895 he left Naissaar for Tallinn to find work as a telegraph
operator
with a rescue team. Between 1895 and 1901 he worked as a photographer
and
in the electromotor works of 'Volta'. Around 1900 he made his first 5"
diameter object glass - not perfect, but he improved it as he made
observations
of the Nova Persei in 1901. That year he left for Goeteborg in Sweden
to
attend a technical school, but instead ended up at Mittweida in
southeastern
Germany in October, preferring the more practically-oriented school
there.
Schmidt favoured hands-on practice to theoretical work. In the summer
of
1903 he fashioned a mirror for the observatory of Altenburg, probably
his
first work geared towards professional use. Most mirrors he made at
that
time were sold to amateurs. This gave him some money to live on, since
he got little financial support from his parents.
In 1904 Schmidt opened an optical workshop in Mittweida in a small
house,
and later moved to a more spacious place. He offered his skills to
observatories
to improve their optics, lenses and mirrors. The start of this small
business
was slow, but after awhile his name spread all over Germany. In 1913 he
was asked to rework a 50 cm (20 inch) telescope lens originally made by
Steinheil & Sons. After that E. Hertzsprung made very delicate
observations
of double stars with this telescope and it remained in use until 1967.
Schmidt also sold two mirrors to the University of Prague, one 60 cm
(24
inch) and one 30 cm (12 inch). His business was slowing down around
1926,
when he was offered work at the Zeiss optical shop in Jena, Germany.
Having
been independent all his life, however, he wanted to work only when he
liked to, so he refused the offer.
In 1927 he sold his shop and moved to Hamburg to work at the nearby
observatory in Bergedorf as a freelance optician. The director then was
R. Schorr, who knew about Schmidt's abilities. He also knew that
Schmidt
liked French brandy and paid him only small sums of money at a time.
'The
optician,' as Schmidt was called, also made observations with various
instruments;
in 1928 he took pictures of Jupiter, Saturn and the moon. During a
journey
back to Hamburg from observing the solar eclipse of 1929 in the Pacific
ocean, Schmidt discussed the possibility of a special camera for wide
angle
sky photography with Walter Baade, who in 1931 joined the Mount Wilson
Observatory in California.
After returning to his workshop at the observatory, Schmidt
developed
his now famous telescope. He made the first one in 1930 with a main
mirror
of 44 cm (17.3 inch) and a corrector plate of 36 cm (14 inch). The
focal
ratio was f=1.75, the field of view 7.5 deg. The very first photograph
with this new instrument was taken from that site, showing a tombstone
from the nearby graveyard.
His design of a wide field camera for stars and celestial objects is
today known as a "Schmidt Camera." The original Schmidt Camera is now
in
the museum of the Hamburg Observatory in Germany. It is not in the
original
state, it has been altered two or three times. The main mirror created
by Schmidt was destroyed during a two-year lease to the German navy
during
World War II, when it was used to make observations of the British
harbours
off the French coast. The Navy paid for a replacement, made by the
Zeiss
optical shop in Jena. Also on display in the museum are some of
Schmidt's
papers and some pieces of glass he figured and polished.
Bernhard Schmidt died of pneumonia on the 1. December 1935, shortly
after returning from a trip to The Netherlands. He was buried in a
cemetery
very close to the observatory. Minor planet (1743) Schmidt was named in
honor of Bernhard Schmidt. It was discovered by C.J. van Houten and I.
van Houten-Groeneveld at Palomar on the September 24th, 1960, the name
was proposed by Dr. Paul Herget.
This page created by Chris Plicht