Scientists

Starry-eyed: Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. Here is an image of a stamp with a portrait of Kepler, designed by Gerhard Stauf, engraved by Oswin Volkamer, and issued by East Germany (DDR) on February 23, 1971, Scott No. 1275.

- nethryk

Hot tempered: Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), French chemist and microbiologist, best known for inventing a method to stop milk and wine from causing sickness, a process that came to be called pasteurization. Here is an image of a semi-postal stamp depicting Dr. Pasteur, designed and engraved by Jacques Gauthier, and issued by France on October 6, 1973, Scott No. B468, Y&T No. 1768.

- nethryk

Charles Darwin(Shrewsbury, England, 1809 - Down, England 1882)Naturalist who first enunciated the Evolution Theory on the Origin of the Species.

That's a sharp looking Kepler stamp nethryk. Even though
most of the East German engraved stamps were pretty mediocre
in my opinion, this one by Oswin Volkamer is excellent.

I remember seeing a miniseries (British of course) about Darwin on TV many years ago.
It was absolutely fascinating, the acting, the locations,
and of course the story starting from when he leaves as a young man
on a 5 year voyage on the Beagle and culminating in finally
publishing On the Origin of Species.

Why can't they produce quality like that anymore instead of all
that garbage on TV & in the movies.

Anyway here is a Czech stamp issued in 1959 in honour of
Darwin's 150th Birth Anniversary.

Alexander von Humboldt, the German (Prussian)naturalist and explorer
is not as well known as Darwin but his work was of major importance
in the field of botanical geography.


West Germany issued this stamp in 1959 for his 100th Death Anniversary

lithograving - Thanks. I would agree that Oswin Volkamer demonstrated excellent engraving technique on the DDR Kepler stamp. And, while we're in Deutschland...

A glowing personality: Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934), Polish-born French physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes — in physics and in chemistry. Here is an image of a stamp depicting Curie, designed and engraved by Margot Sachs-Bitzer, and issued by East Germany (DDR) on July 6, 1967, Scott No. 937, Michel No. 1294.

- nethryk

Most people have heard of the term Mach 1 or 2 etc when referring to
the speed of an object when it is traveling close to or above the speed of sound.
But probably only a few know why it's called that.

The Mach number is named after Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (1838 - 1916)

This Austrian stamp was issued in 1988 for Mach's 150th
Birth Anniversary.

Scott 1419

Just about everyone knows that Alexander Graham Bell invented
the Telephone. But did he ?

Has anyone heard of Philipp Reis (1834 - 1874) or the Reis Telephon ?

Read the story here in these two Wikipedia articles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Reis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reis_telephone


West German stamp issued in 1952 for 75 years of the telephone
system in Germany.

Michel 161




Issued in 1961 for the 100th Anniversary of the Reis-Telephon

Michel 373

Rolling the dice: Niels Henrik David Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Here are images of two stamps in a set depicting Bohr, an equation relating to light frequency and electrons, and a diagram of a hydrogen atom, designed by Danish artist and illustrator Viggo Bang (1885-1967), engraved by Czeslaw Slania, and issued by Denmark on November 21, 1963, Scott Nos. 409 & 410, Facit Nos. 443 & 444. My favorite Bohr quote: "No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical."

- nethryk

Another Louis Pasteur from the 1938 unemployed intellectuals fund set SG #607 Y+T #385

Goes with the flow: André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836), French physicist and mathematician, called the "father of electrodynamics." The unit of measurement of electric current, the ampere, is named after him. Here is an image of a stamp depicting Ampère and an ampere balance, designed and engraved by Michel Monvoisin, and issued by Monaco in November 1975 for the bicentenary of Ampère's birth, Scott No. 1001.

- nethryk

Gazing at the Starlight: Nicolas Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) was a French astronomer and the author of more than fifty titles, including popular science books about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and works on Spiritualism. He also published the magazine L'Astronomie, starting in 1882. In 1907 Flammarion wrote that he believed that dwellers on Mars had tried to communicate with the Earth in the past, and in 1910 he predicted that the gas from the tail of Halley's Comet "would impregnate [the Earth's] atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet." Here is an image of a stamp depicting Flammarion, his private observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, and the night sky, designed and engraved by Raoul Serres, and issued by France on April 7, 1956, Scott No. 792, Y&T No. 1057.

- nethryk

Here is an image of a stamp with a somewhat more "radiant" portrait of Marie Sklodowska Curie, printed by photogravure, and issued by Poland on April 25, 1951, Scott No. 512.

- nethryk

Richard Phillips Feynman
(May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988)
was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics (he proposed the parton model. For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.

fifia - Richard Feynman was also an accomplished bongos player. His book of personal reminiscences entitled "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character, published in 1985, is a real hoot. - nethryk