Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger (or Wilhelm von Haidinger) (5 February 1795 – 19 March 1871) was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n mineralogist, geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

 and 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...

.

He was born at Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

; his father, Karl Haidinger, contributed largely to the development of mineralogical science in the latter half of the 18th century. Having studied at the normal school of St Anne, and attended classes at the university, Wilhelm, at the age of seventeen, joined Professor Friedrich Mohs

Friedrich Mohs

Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs was a German geologist/mineralogist.- Career :Mohs, born in Gernrode, Germany, studied chemistry, mathematics and physics at the University of Halle and also studied at the Mining Academy in Freiberg, Saxony...

 at Graz

Graz University of Technology

The Graz University of Technology is the second largest university in Styria, Austria, after the University of Graz. Austria has three universities of technology – in Graz, in Leoben, and in Vienna. The Graz University of Technology was founded in 1811 by Archduke John of Austria. TUG, as the...

, and five years later accompanied the professor to Freiberg, Saxony

Freiberg, Saxony

Freiberg is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, administrative center of the Mittelsachsen district.-History:The city was founded in 1186, and has been a center of the mining industry in the Ore Mountains for centuries...

, on the transfer of his labours to the mining academy of that town

Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg

The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg is a small German University of Technology with about 5000 students in the city of Freiberg, Saxony...

.

In 1822 Haidinger visited France and England with Count Breunner, and, journeying northward, took up his abode in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

. He translated into English, with additions of his own, Mohs's Grundriß der Mineralogie, published at Edinburgh in three volumes under the title Treatise on Mineralogy (1825). After a tour in northern Europe, including the Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n mining districts, he undertook the scientific direction of the porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

 works at Elbogen

Elbogen

Elbogen or Ellenbogen may refer to:* Elbogen, the German name for Loket, a town in the Czech Republic* The Swedish city of Malmö, known as Elbogen in German during the 14th to 16th centuries...

, belonging to his brothers.

In 1840 he was appointed counsellor of mines (Bergrat) at Vienna in the place of Professor Mohs, a post which included the charge of the imperial cabinet of minerals. He devoted himself to the rearrangement and enrichment of the collections, and the museum became the finest in Europe. Shortly after 1843, Haidinger commenced a series of lectures on mineralogy

Mineralogy

Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...

, which was given to the world under the title Handbuch der bestimmenden Mineralogie (Vienna, 1845; tables, 1846).

After the establishment of the Imperial Geological Institute, he was chosen director in 1849; and this important position he occupied for seventeen years. He was elected a member of the imperial board of agriculture and mines, and a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna. He organized the society of the Freunde der Naturwissenschaften. In 1858, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...

.

As a physicist Haidinger ranked highly, and he was one of the most active promoters of scientific progress in Austria. He was the first to observe the slight polarization dependence of the human eye, observed via the phenomenon now known as Haidinger's brush

Haidinger's brush

Haidinger's brush is an entoptic phenomenon first described by Austrianphysicist Wilhelm Karl von Haidinger in 1844.Many people are able to perceive polarization of light....

. Knighted in 1865, the following year he retired to his estate at Dornbach near Vienna, where he died on 19 March 1871.

In addition to the works already named, Haidinger published:

• Anfangsgründe der Mineralogie (Leipzig, 1829)
• Geognotische Übersichtskarte der österreichischen Monarchie (Vienna, 1847)
• Bemerkungen über die Anordnung der kleinsten Teilchen in Christallen (Vienna, 1853)
• Interferenzlinien am Glimmer (Vienna, 1855)
• Vergleichungen von Augit und Amphibo (Vienna, 1855)

He also edited the Naturwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (Vienna, 1847); the Berichte über die Mitteilungen von Freunden der Naturwissenschaften in Wien (Vienna, 1847–1851); and the Jahrbuch of the Vienna KK Geologische Reichsanstalt (1850), etc.

Some of those above papers will be found in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (vol. x.) and of the Wernerian Society (1822–1823), Edinburgh Phil. Journal, Brewster

David Brewster

Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA FSSA MICE was a Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and university principal.-Early life:...

's Journal of Science, and Poggendorff

Johann Christian Poggendorff

Johann Christian Poggendorff , was a German physicist born in Hamburg.By far the greater and more important part of his work related to electricity and magnetism. Poggendorff is known for his electrostatic motor which is analogous to Wilhelm Holtz's electrostatic machine...

's Annalen.