Otto Lehmann was a German physicist

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

 and "father" of liquid crystal

Liquid crystal

Liquid crystals are a state of matter that have properties between those of a conventional liquid and those of a solid crystal. For instance, an LC may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. There are many different types of LC phases, which can be...

 technology.

Life

Otto was the son of Franz Xavier Lehmann, a mathematics teacher in the Baden-Wurtemberg school system, with a strong interest in microscope

Microscope

A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy...

s. Otto learned to experiment and keep records of this findings. Between 1872 and 1877, Lehmann studied natural science

Natural science

The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...

s at the University of Strassburg and obtained the Ph.D. under crystallographer Paul Groth

Paul Heinrich von Groth

Paul Heinrich von Groth was a German mineralogist. His most important contribution to science was his systematic classification of minerals based on their chemical compositions and crystal structures....

.
Otto used polarizer

Polarizer

A polarizer is an optical filter that passes light of a specific polarization and blocks waves of other polarizations. It can convert a beam of light of undefined or mixed polarization into a beam with well-defined polarization. The common types of polarizers are linear polarizers and circular...

s in a microscope so that he might watch for birefringence

Birefringence

Birefringence, or double refraction, is the decomposition of a ray of light into two rays when it passes through certain anisotropic materials, such as crystals of calcite or boron nitride. The effect was first described by the Danish scientist Rasmus Bartholin in 1669, who saw it in calcite...

 appearing in the process of crystallization.

Initially becoming a school teacher for physics, mathematics and chemistry in Mülhausen (Alsace-Lorraine

Alsace-Lorraine

The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...

), he started university teaching at the RWTH Aachen University in 1883. In 1889, he succeeded Heinrich Hertz as head of the Institute of Physics in Karlsruhe.

Lehmann received a letter from Friedrich Reinitzer

Friedrich Reinitzer

Friedrich Richard Reinitzer was an Austrian botanist and chemist. In late 1880s, experimenting with cholesteryl benzoate, he discovered properties of liquid crystals ....

 asking for confirmation of some unusual observations. As Dunmur and Sluckin(2011) say

It was Lehmann's jealously guarded and increasingly prestigious microscope, not yet available off the shelf, which had attracted Reinitzer's attention. With Reinitzer's peculiar double-melting liquid, a problem in search of a scientist had met a scientist in search of a problem.

The article "On Flowing Crystals" that Lehmann wrote for Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie

Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie

Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie is a physical chemistry journal published in Germany. Its name literally means "Journal of Physical Chemistry", but its official English-language subtitle is "International journal of research in physical chemistry and chemical physics". Its emphasis is on...

 addresses directly the question of phase of matter involved, and leaves in its wake the science of liquid crystal

Liquid crystal

Liquid crystals are a state of matter that have properties between those of a conventional liquid and those of a solid crystal. For instance, an LC may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. There are many different types of LC phases, which can be...

s.

Lehmann was an unsuccessful nominee for a Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

from 1913 to 1922.

Work

• Selbstanfertigung physikalischer Apparate. Leipzig 1885.
• Molekularphysik (i.e. Molecular physics). 2 Bde, Leipzig 1888/89.
• Die Kristallanalyse (i.e. The Analysis of Crystals). Leipzig 1891.
• Elektricität und Licht (i.e. Electricity and Light). Braunschweig 1895.
• Flüssige Krystalle (i.e. Liquid Crystals). Leipzig 1904.
• Die scheinbar lebenden Krystalle. Eßlingen 1907.
• Die wichtigsten Begriffe und Gesetze der Physik. Berlin 1907.
• Flüssige Kristalle und ihr scheinbares Leben. Forschungsergebnisse dargestellt in einem Kinofilm. Voss, Leipzig 1921.