Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core Microscopy Pioneers Pioneers in Optics: Johann Wilhelm Ritter and Ernest Rutherford Michael W. Davidson . IP address: National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306
[email protected] 170.106.35.234 Johann Wilhelm Ritter beyond the violet. Ritter initially referred to the new type of , on (1776–1810) radiation as chemical rays, but the title of ultraviolet radiation 30 Sep 2021 at 19:10:55 Johann Wilhelm Ritter was a somewhat controversial eventually became the preferred term. scientist best known for his discovery of ultraviolet radiation. Despite his significant scientific achievements and his He was born on December 16, 1776, in Samitz, Germany, an acceptance into the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Ritter area that is now part of Poland. Apprenticed to an apothecary was not well received by his contemporaries. His writing in Leignitz at the age of fourteen, Ritter developed an acute was considered oblique and confusing, and he often delayed interest in chemistry that carried over into other scientific explaining his experiments in detail. Some believed Ritter , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at fields. When he inherited a sum of made claims that he could not support and deemed him an money five years later, he was able unreliable source of information. His interest and studies of to leave his position and decided occult phenomena further damaged his reputation as a serious to enroll at the University of Jena. scientist. Jaded by his lack of credit and plagued by financial There he studied medicine, staying difficulties, Ritter suffered a premature death at the age of on in a teaching position after thirty-three and did not receive proper recognition for his his graduation, until the duke of scientific exploits until more than a century later.