von Widmanstätten, Aloys Joseph Franz Xaver

Habashi, Fathi

doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1469

Fathi Habashi⁹

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Alternate Names

von Widmanstätten, Alois Joseph Franz Xaver; von Widmanstätten, Alois Joseph Franz Xaver von; Widmanstätten, Aloys Joseph Franz Xaver von

BornGraz, (Austria), 13 July 1754

DiedVienna, (Austria), 10 June 1849

Austrian printer and meteoriticist Aloys von Widmanstätten has his name firmly associated with the patterns of lines seen in iron and iron-nickel meteorites when they are sectioned and etched. The family traced its ancestry to Georg Widmanstätten, a devoted Catholic and successful printer in Bavaria. He was knighted in 1548 by Emperor Karl V. The noble name was transferred to Johann Andrea Karl Beckh, husband of Susanne Widmanstätten and granddaughter of Georg, because her brother Ferdinand, who was Mayor and City Judge of Graz, had no son to inherit the title.

Johann and Susanne von Widmanstätten were the parents of Aloys, and their printing business was successful until Johann died in 1765, leaving it to his 11-year-old son. Aloys studied natural science at the...

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Selected References

Anon. (1887). “Widmanstätter (Bekh-Widmanstätter) Alois Joseph Franz Xaver von.” Biographishes Lexikon des Kaisertums Österreich. Vienna.
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Habashi, F. (1995). “Aloys von Widmanstätten and the Story of Meteorites.” Bulletin of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 88, no. 987: 61–66.
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— (1998). “Meteorites: History, Mineralogy, and Metallurgy.” Interdisciplinary Science Review 23, no. 1: 71–81.
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Schützenhofer, V. (1947). “Aloys von Widmanstätten.” Blätter für Technikgeschichte (Vienna): 34–44.
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Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges with thanks the information supplied by Dr. Heinrich Thurn and Prof. Gero Kurat from Vienna.

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Department of Mining, Metallurgical, and Materials Engineering, Laval University, 7702QC, Canada
Fathi Habashi

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Fathi Habashi
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Correspondence to Fathi Habashi .

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Department of Earth Science, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA
Thomas Hockey
University of California, Irvine School of Physical Sciences, Irvine, CA, USA
Virginia Trimble
Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
Thomas R. Williams
Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, USA
Katherine Bracher
York Univesity, Toronto, ON, Canada
Richard A. Jarrell
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
Jordan D. Marché II
University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
JoAnn Palmeri
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Daniel W. E. Green

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Habashi, F. (2014). von Widmanstätten, Aloys Joseph Franz Xaver. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1469

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1469
Published: 24 December 2016
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-9916-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-9917-7
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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