Article ID: CBB001202237

Hansteen's Magnetometer and the Origin of the Magnetic Crusade (2014)

unapi

In the early nineteenth century, Norwegian mathematician and astronomer Christopher Hansteen (1784-1873) contributed significantly to international collaboration in the study of terrestrial magnetism. In particular, Hansteen was influential in the origin and orientation of the magnetic lobby in Britain, a campaign which resulted in a global network of fixed geomagnetic observatories. In retrospect, however, his contribution was diminished, because his four-pole theory in Untersuchungen der Magnetismus der Erde (1819) was ultimately refuted by Carl Friedrich Gauss in Allgemeine Theorie des Erdmagnetismus (1839). Yet Hansteen's main contribution was practical rather than theoretical. His major impact was related to the circulation of his instruments and techniques. From the mid-1820s, 'Hansteen's magnetometer' was distributed all over the British Isles and throughout the international scientific community devoted to studying terrestrial magnetism. Thus in the decades before the magnetic crusade, Hansteen had established an international system of observation, standardization and representation based on measurements with his small and portable magnetometers.

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Authors & Contributors
Josefowicz, Diane Greco
Miguel Ohnesorge
Wiederkehr, K.-H.
Turner, Gerard L'Estrange
Tucci, Pasquale
Schröder, Wilfried
Concepts
Geomagnetism
Mathematics
Measurement
Standards and standardization
Scientific apparatus and instruments
Astronomy
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century, early
20th century
17th century
Places
Germany
Göttingen (Germany)
Hanover (Germany)
United States
Portugal
Polar regions
Institutions
Universität Göttingen
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