History

• Born on August 31, 1821, in Potsdam, Prussia, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was the oldest of four children born to Ferdinand Helmholtz. Early in his life, Helmholtz was prone to illness. Until he was 7 years old, he had to be kept home. Helmholtz's primary interest was in physics, but the government didn't give financial assistance to completely scientific courses. The government did, however, give financial assistance to medical students, though only if they served as an army doctor for 8 years. Because of this, in 1838 Helmholtz went to medical school instead of going into physics, at the Friedrich Wilhelm Medical Institute at Berlin. After graduation, Helmholtz's military post was Potsdam. However, due to his scientific ability he was allowed to leave the military. Before doing so he met and married his wife, Olga von Velten. His academic teaching career began at the University of Bonn in 1855 with anatomy and physiology. He then started to develop his interests, and therefore his stand, in physics. This led to a physics teaching opening at the University of Berlin in 1871. Seventeen years later, in 1888, he became the first director of the Berlin Physico-Technical Institute.
  
  

Time Frame

• Helmholtz's father studied philosophy and classical philology, which influenced Helmholtz's ideas. His father also knew Immanuel Hermann Fichte, who is also understood to have influenced Helmholtz's life. Informing his theory on the conservation of energy, Helmholtz used the work of James Prescott Joule, Sadi Carrot, and Emile Clapeyron. It was from their work that he formed the idea of heat, electricity, magnetism, mechanics and light being related to each other in some way.
  
  

Features

• Helmholtz developed several major theories. One of them is the Young-Helmholtz theory. He also invented several devices. These include the ophthalmoscope (used for examining the eye's interior), the ophthalometer (which measure how the eye compensates in different optical situation) and the Helmholtz resonator (used to analyze sounds for their components).
  
  

Effects

• Many of Helmholtz's inventions and theories are still in use today. The ophthalmoscope is still used today. His improvements on Young's theory on the eye (called the Young Helmholtz theory) predicted the color receptors of cone cells in the eye.
  
  

Significance

• Helmholtz died September 8, 1894, however, people still honor his contributions by naming things after him, such as the Helmholtz coil, and commemorate him by making a stamp with his face on it.