The Leading Mid-European Astronomer Marian Wolfgang Koller

Marian Wolfgang Koller used to be considered the very best astronomer from Carniola next to Augustin Hallerstein. Today, his work connected with the Dalton Minimum is again in limelight as the alternative explanation of global warming phenomena. Koller wrote precise notes of six semestrial courses of Josef Stefan to promote Stefan’s talents. By using the international connection of his patron Koller, Stefan published at least twenty articles in the British Philosophical Magazine, some of them also in Paris and Geneva.

Control of Ferroelectric Domain Wall Motion using Electrodes with Limited Conductivity

This chapter addresses the experimental control of ferroelectric DW motion in thin films using electron-beam induced deposition (EBID) electrodes with limited conductivity which governs the supply of charges required for DW nucleation and propagation. The problem of a moving domain boundary, addressed in this chapter, belongs to the general class of free-boundary problems, or Stefan problems, after Josef Stefan who mathematically described ice formation and then demonstrated generality of his approach by applying the same technique to describe diffusion. In the frame of this approach the position of the boundary is determined from the transport of a physical quantity, flowing through and partially consumed at the boundary. Nowadays mathematical modelling of Stefan problems has developed into a rich field of knowledge where both analytical and numerical methods are applied to solve various important applied tasks. In this chapter, the process is described by analogy to the classical Stefan model, historically applied to the motion of phase boundaries under propagation of heat but which is here applied to precisely describe DW motion under linear electrodes and the 2D growth of a circular domain.

Josef Štefan Kubíns Sammlung von Volkserzählungen aus dem Riesengebirgsvorland

SummaryIn the first quarter of the 20th century, the Czech teacher J. St. Kubín collected far more than 1000 folktales of Czech countrymen, especially in the Giant Mountains. Kubín comprehended the orally passed on folktale as the genuine cultural tradition of ‘unsophisticated’ people. The narrator is the bearer of this tradition, which Kubín defends as autonomous and native against modernism and civic society. Different from Václav Tille, who claimed the literary written origin of folktales, Kubín emphasizes the oral tradition of the folktales. His rich collection shows the internationality of the types of the folktale.

Josef Stefan and His Contributions to Heat Transfer

Josef Stefan was a professor of physics at the University of Vienna between 1863 and 1893. During his time in Vienna he was a fruitful researcher in many scientific fields, but he is best known for his work in heat transfer. He was a gifted experimentalist and theoretician who made contributions to conduction, convection and radiation heat transfer. Stefan was the first to accurately measure the thermal conductivity of gases, using a device he invented called the diathermometer. He also determined the diffusion of two gases into each other, a process now known as Maxwell-Stefan diffusion. His work provided experimental verification of the newly formulated kinetic theory of gases published by the great Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Stefan also experimentally studied the motion of gases induced by evaporation along a liquid surface, a phenomenon known as Stefan flow. In addition, Stefan received data from various expeditions on ice formation in the arctic seas. From that solid/liquid phase change data, he formulated solutions to the moving boundary problem, now called the Stefan problem. The work for which he is most famous is the T4 radiation law which he deduced from the experimental work of a number of investigators. However, his theory was not widely accepted until his former student, Ludwig Boltzmann, derived the same relation from first principles. In their honor, the T4 radiation equation is called the Stefan-Boltzmann law. Despite his varied contributions, little is known about Stefan the man. This paper gives some details on his life and describes the seminal work he performed in broad areas of heat transfer.