Background
Gerrit Moll was born Gerard Moll on January 18, 1785, in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, the Netherlands to the family of a merchant Gerard (Gerrit) Moll and a poet Anna Diersen.
Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231, 1012 EZ Amsterdam, Netherlands
To protect Moll from French conscription, his father registered him at the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam. His teacher Jan Hendrik van Swinden convinced Moll's father that the talented Gerrit had to devote himself entirely to the study instead of the trade. Other Moll professors at the Athenaeum were Hendrik Constantijn Cras and David Jacob van Lennep.
Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231, 1012 EZ Amsterdam, Netherlands
To protect Moll from French conscription, his father registered him at the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam. His teacher Jan Hendrik van Swinden convinced Moll's father that the talented Gerrit had to devote himself entirely to the study instead of the trade. Other Moll professors at the Athenaeum were Hendrik Constantijn Cras and David Jacob van Lennep.
Rapenburg 70, 2311 EZ Leiden, Netherlands
In 1809 Moll was awarded a Candidaat degree by Leiden University.
Gerrit Moll was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Gerrit Moll was a member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities.
Gerrit Moll was a member of the Society of Dutch Literature.
Gerrit Moll was a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.
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1823
Astronomer educator mathematician physicist scientist
Gerrit Moll was born Gerard Moll on January 18, 1785, in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, the Netherlands to the family of a merchant Gerard (Gerrit) Moll and a poet Anna Diersen.
Gerrit Moll was predestined for trade by his father. That's why he learned English, French, and German and did an internship in Germany at a trading company. Young Moll, however, preferred mathematics and classical languages, and in 1801 he made astronomical observations with his teacher of geometry, algebra, and astronomy Jan Frederik Keijser. During a trade trip to London, Moll bought a ten-inch sextant there in 1804 in Edward Troughton 's workshop, possibly Moll's first measuring instrument. To protect Moll from French conscription, his father registered him at the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam. His teacher Jan Hendrik van Swinden convinced Moll's father that the talented Gerrit had to devote himself entirely to the study instead of the trade. Other Moll professors at the Athenaeum were Hendrik Constantijn Cras and David Jacob van Lennep. In 1809 he was awarded a Candidate degree by Leiden University; and in 1810 he went to Paris, where he studied under Delambre.
Returning to Holland in 1812, Gerrit Moll was appointed a director of the observatory in Utrecht. When that university was reorganized in 1815, Moll became a professor of physics as well and continued in both these positions until his death.
With little financial support and a crumbling observatory building, Moll contributed to astronomy rather more by personal contacts with scientists in other countries - especially in Great Britain - than by observing the heavens. His main astronomical accomplishment seems to have been his observation of the transit of Mercury of 5 May 1832.
In physics, Moll made several contributions. With Albert van Beek he measured the speed of sound; an artillery battalion was placed at the experimenters’ disposal, cannon were fired simultaneously - at night - from hills about nine miles apart, and the interval between light flash and sound was recorded at either end and then averaged. The value obtained was 332.05 meters/second (the currently accepted value is 331.45).
Moll also extended the pioneering observations of H. C. Oersted, published in 1820, on the magnetic field that surrounds a wire carrying an electric current. He also investigated the lifting capacities of the electromagnets based on this phenomenon.
Gerrit Moll was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, the Society of Dutch Literature, and the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.
Gerrit Moll was an avid art collector.
Gerrit Moll married Johanna van Teutem in 1818. They divorced on August 3, 1830. They had a daughter Anna Moll.