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Robert Mayer
1814 – 1878 · aged 64
German physicist (1814-1878)
- Born
- 25 Nov 1814 · Heilbronn
- Died
- 20 Mar 1878 · Heilbronn
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 25 Nov 1814BornBorn in Heilbronn
- 1867AwardHonorary member of the Physics Association (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
- 1869AwardPoncelet Prize
- 1871AwardCopley Medal
- 20 Mar 1878DiedDied in Heilbronn
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1814 – 1878).
- 1814 – 1815Congress of Vienna
- 1853 – 1856Crimean War
- 1857 – 1858Indian Rebellion of 1857
- 1870 – 1871Franco-Prussian War
Biography
Julius Robert von Mayer (25 November 1814 – 20 March 1878) was a German physician, chemist, and physicist and one of the founders of thermodynamics. He is best known for enunciating in 1841 one of the original statements of the conservation of energy or what is now known as one of the first versions of the first law of thermodynamics, namely that "energy can be neither created nor destroyed". In 1842, Mayer described the vital chemical process now referred to as oxidation as the primary source of energy for any living creature. He also proposed that plants convert light into chemical energy.
His achievements were overlooked and priority for the discovery in 1842 of the mechanical equivalent of heat was attributed to James Joule in the following year.
Text from the Wikipedia article Julius von Mayer, CC BY-SA 4.0
About this information
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