“I defeated the light, I have it firmly in hand, because there is much darkness in the world too.”
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Joseph Petzval
Joseph Petzval was a mathematician, inventor, and physicist best known for his work in optics. He was born in the town of Szepesbéla in the Kingdom of Hungary.
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science · Slovak physicist, mathematician and inventor · physicist · mathematician · lens designer · inventor · photographer · also Joseph Petzval, Petzval
Born 6 January 1807 · Died 19 September 1891 · Q520053
29 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 5 entries
“. . . he went so far as to always insert a bare point, for example, use the appearing annual yearbook of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, in whatever apart from the names of the members the date and the place appear aforementioned to the birth for itself into this column.”
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“Mankind does not exist for science”
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Newsshooter: TLS Mamiya 645 200mm T2.9 & Petzval 35mm T1.7
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cameraandlightmag.com: TLS amplía su catálogo con dos las ópticas Mamiya 645 200mm y Petzval 35mm
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1980· 1 entry
A minor planet (3716 Petzval, 1980 TG) was named after Petzval upon the request of the astronomical institute in Tatranská Lomnica and Czech scientists; Petzval's portrait objective lens made possible the discovery of ma
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1959· 1 entry
“The Austrians declared Petzval to having been an Austrian, the Czechs tried to prove his Bohemian origin, the Slovaks claiming to the fact that the County of Szepes, where Petzval was born, is now in Slovakia, so he must have been a Slovak.”
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1891· 2 entries
Died 1891-09-19.
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Nearly forgotten, embittered, and destitute
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1877· 1 entry
Stopped lecturing, withdrew to a monastery on Kahlenberg, and became a hermit
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1869· 1 entry
At the age of 62, Petzval married his housekeeper, but she died four years later
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1862· 1 entry
(see further below); Dietzler died in 1872
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1859· 1 entry
Petzval's home was broken into, and his manuscripts — a result of many years of research — were destroyed
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1852· 1 entry
With a book entitled "Remarks Over the Objections Stated by Professor Petzval Against the Correctness of My Theory"
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1845· 1 entry
When Petzval raised the issue of fraud for the first time
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1841· 1 entry
600 of these cameras were manufactured and sold at a price of 120 guldens
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1840· 1 entry
Petzval allowed the Viennese entrepreneur Peter Wilhelm Friedrich von Voigtländer to produce the lens for a one-time payment of 2,000 guldens, without a patent or a contract, which led later to a lasting controversy betw
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1839· 1 entry
Louis Daguerre presented the Daguerreotype, the first commercially successful photographic process
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1836· 1 entry
Petzval accepted a position of the chair of mathematics there in 1837, and worked until 1877 as a professor of mathematics
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1835· 1 entry
Was appointed a university professor in higher mathematics
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1832· 2 entries
Taught as an associate professor at the university
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Studied at Eötvös Loránd University, Doctor (1826–1832).
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1830· 1 entry
His dam computations saved the city from an inundation caused by the flooding of the Danube
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1824· 1 entry
Was awarded two patents: one for improvements to the pendulum clock and the other for a "polygraph" (typewriter)
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1823· 2 entries
Studied at Ján Francisci-Rimavský Gymnasium (1819–1823).
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Petzval was already well-versed in the subjects of Latin, mathematical analysis, classical literature and stylistics
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1810· 1 entry
The family moved to Késmárk (in German: Käsmark, today Kežmarok, Slovakia) and in 1819 to Lőcse (in German: Leutschau, today Levoča, Slovakia)
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1807· 1 entry
Born 1807-01-06.
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1801· 1 entry
Joseph Petzval's father married the Zipser German Susanne Kreutzmann, who was born in Szepesbéla, Kingdom of Hungary, a daughter of the previous teacher at the same school in Szepesbéla
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