Gustav Jaumann

Gustav Jaumann (1863–1924) was an Austrian physicist.^[1] An assistant to the physicist Ernst Mach, he had a talent for mathematics, but disbelieved the existence of small particles like electrons and atoms.^[2] Between 1901 and 1924 he taught physics at the German Technical University in Brno.^[3] He won the Haitinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1911.^[4]

Remembered for

• Corotational derivative expresses the stress tensor in a rotating body.^[5]

• Jaumann was offered a professorship at Prague University in 1911, but refused the position. The candidate who was the faculty's first choice, Albert Einstein, would accept the offer after it was turned down by Jaumann, who is alleged to have said in an unsubstantiated quotation from Philipp Frank: "If Einstein has been proposed as the first choice because of the belief that he has greater achievements to his credit, then I will have nothing to do with a university that chases after modernity and does not appreciate merit."^[6] The actual reason is alleged by the Austrian Minister of Education in his official report to the Emperor, Franz Josef, seems to have been about money. The beleaguered situation of Germans in Prague at the time about which Jaumann was familiar with may also have been a factor in declining the post. Jaumann was apparently the candidate preferred by the Austro-Hungarian ministry presumably because he was Austrian and not a foreigner. Einstein, under the impression he would not receive the job, however, blamed his "Semitic origin [that] the ministry did not approve [of]".^[6]

Notes

1. Müller (2007) footnote on page 75.
2. Blackmore (2001), page 23
3. Teachers ..., page 9
4. Tanner & Walters 1998, p. 37.
5. Han-Chin Wu (2005) "Continuum Mechanics and Plasticity" in: David Gao and Ray W. Ogden (Eds.); CRC Series: Modern Mechanics and Mathematics; Chapman & Hall / CRC, Boca Raton, U.S.A.; 2005; 676 pp. {ISBN 1-58488-363-4} — pages 170ff., 172ff.
6. Isaacson (2007), page 163

References

• Blackmore J. T., Itagaki R., Tanaka S. (2001), Ernst Mach's Vienna 1895-1930: Or Phenomenalism as Philosophy of Science (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science) Springer Verlag, ISBN 978-0-7923-7122-9. Available in Google Books.
• Isaacson W. (2007) Einstein, Simon and Schuster, ISBN 978-0-7432-6473-0.
• Müller, I., (2007) A History of Thermodynamics: The Doctrine of Energy and Entropy, Springer Verlag, ISBN 978-3-540-46226-2. footnote on page 75. Available in Google Books.
• Teachers of physics and chemistry at the German Technical University in Brno.
• Tanner, R.I.; Walters, K. (1998). Rheology: An Historical Perspective: An Historical Perspective. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-054057-3.
• Wu, Han-Chin (2004). Continuum Mechanics and Plasticity. CRC Series--Modern Mechanics and Mathematics. Chapman & Hall. ISBN 978-1-58488-363-0., available on Google Books.

External links

• Gustav Jaumann in German Wikipedia
• Einstein's Job Search