Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen

Life and work

Waltershausen was born at Göttingen and educated at the university in that city. There he devoted his attention to physical and natural science, and in particular to mineralogy. Waltershausen was named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was close friends with his parents. Waltershausen's father, Georg, was a writer, lecturer and professor of economics and history at Göttingen. Georg Sartorius (later Sartorius von Waltershausen) is best known in his role of translator and popularizer of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Waltershausen's son, August, was a well known economist who studied the American economy, and had at least one of his books translated into English.

During a tour in 1834-1835 Waltershausen carried out a series of magnetic observations in various parts of Europe. He then gave his attention to an exhaustive investigation of the volcano of Mount Etna, in Sicily, and carried on the work with some interruptions until 1843 including with Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters. The chief result of this undertaking was his great Atlas des Ätna (1858–1861), in which he distinguished the lava streams formed during the later centuries.

After his return from Mount Etna, Waltershausen visited Iceland, and subsequently published Physisch-geographische Skizze von Island (1847), Über die vulkanischen Gesteine in Sizilien und Island (1853), and Geologischer Atlas von Island (1853). Meanwhile, he was appointed professor of mineralogy and geology at Göttingen, and held this post for about thirty years, until his death.

In 1866 Waltershausen published an important essay entitled Recherches sur les climats de l'époque actuelle et des époques anciennes; in this he expressed his belief that the Ice age was due to changes in the configuration of the Earth's surface. He died at Göttingen.

In 1880, Arnold von Lasaulx edited Waltershausen notes and published the book Der Aetna (cover page pictured).

Gauss zum Gedächtnis

Waltershausen was also the author of Gauss zum Gedächtnis, in 1856. This biography, published upon the death of Carl Friedrich Gauss, is viewed as Gauss's biography as Gauss wished it to be told. It is also the source of one of the most famous mathematical quotes: Mathematics is the queen of the sciences. and the famous story of Gauss as a young boy quickly finding the sum of a long string of consecutive numbers

When Gauss died in Göttingen, two individuals gave eulogies at his funeral: Gauss's son-in-law Heinrich Ewald, and Waltershausen who represented the faculty in Göttingen.

Commemorations

The mineral Sartorite as well as the Waltershausen Glacier in Northeast Greenland73°52′N 24°20′W were named in his honour.