Physicist — Adalbert von Waltenhofen (Admontbühel 1828 – Vienna 1914) was an Austrian physicist, active above all in the field of electromagnetism and applied physics. He studied in Vienna and taught at various universities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including Prague and the Vienna Polytechnic. He worked on electromagnetism, magnetism, and equipment for electrotechnical teaching and research. He is remembered for the ‘Waltenhofen pendulum’, a demonstration device that illustrates the braking effect of eddy currents (Foucault currents) in a magnetic field. He wrote textbooks and contributed to the spread of electrotechnical culture in the German-speaking world.
Trivia
His demonstration pendulum shows how a solid metal plate is abruptly braked by the magnetic field, while a comb-shaped plate, with cuts that interrupt the eddy currents, oscillates almost freely.
Theories and contributions
- Waltenhofen pendulum — Device that demonstrates the braking of a conducting plate due to the eddy currents induced as it passes through a magnetic field.
Present in chapters
Linked atoms
2 linked atoms.