Background
Josef Maria Eder was born in 1855 in Krems on the Danube, Austria.
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Josef Eder
Edit Profilechemist historian Photographer teacher author
Education
He studied at the University of Vienna, specializing in the study of natural sciences.
Career
Eder worked in the Austria State Mining Laboratory for a time and then became assistant to J. J. Pohl, professor of chemical technology in Vienna. For one year he was a substitute professor of chemistry at the technical high school at Troppau. In June 1880 he was appointed associate professor of photochemistry and scientific photography at the technical high school in Vienna. By 1882 his status changed to professor of chemistry and physics. In 1889 Eder was appointed director of the newly founded Graphische Lehrund Versuchsanstalt, a post he held for many years, retiring in 1923.
Eder assisted the Austrian legislature in drafting a bill for the protection of the rights of inventors in the field of photography that went into effect in 1895. His efforts resulted in a government appointment as court expert in the field of the graphic industry and chairman of the government department of experts on patent rights, a position he retained for several years and from which he retired in 1925.
He received the gold Swedish Adelskold medal, the Petzval medal, the Plosl medal, the Maria Theresa medal of the Vienna Camera Club, the Daguerre gold medal of the Photographic Society of Berlin, the Senefelder medal of the Gremium of Lithographers and Copper Printers of Vienna, the progress medal of RPS, the Peligot medal of the Société Française de Photographie and the Japanese medal of honor of the Friends of Photography in Tokyo. On its twenty- fifth anniversary, the Graphische Lehrund Versuchsanstalt presented Eder with a silver plaque bearing his portrait.
Eder investigated the composition and method of producing iron oxalate and its compounds, then little known, which later became important in connection with platinotype and other iron-printing processes. He was the first to establish the dominating sensitiveness of the ultraviolet and the coefficient of light reaction. With Giuseppe Pizzighelli, he developed a silver chloride gelatine process, and he discovered the silver chloride bromide gelatine process. These latter two discoveries became the basis for the industry of the manufacture of photographic art paper and of positive films for motion pictures. Eder researched the reaction of silver halide compounds to the solar spectrum and the action of dyes and other substances on photographic emulsions. He constructed a quartz spectograph in 1889, through which he was the first to establish the ultraviolet emission spectrum of burning carbohydrates and that of the ammonium oxygen flame (1890-92).
Achievements
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PUBLICATIONS Books: Josef Maria Eder Bibliography, Robert Zahlbrecht, preface by Luis Kuhn, 1955 (Vienna); Josef Maria Eder, 1855-1944, F. D. Dworschak & O. Krumpel, 1955 (Vienna); Johann Heinrich Schulze, 1917 (Vienna); Über Schloss Münichau bei Kitzbühel in Tirol, 1915; Quellenschriften zu den frühesten Anfängen der Photographie, 1913; Atlas typischer Spektren, w/Eduard Valenta, 1911, 3rd ed., 1928 (Academy of Sciences: Vienna).
Membership
A member of the Vienna Photographic Society, the Kaiserlich Leopoldinisch-Carolinischen deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher and the Academy of Sciences at Vienna, he also served as honorary president of the Photographic Society, Vienna, and honorary member of the Association of Austrian Chemists. Additionally, he was a member of the First International Congress on Astrophotography and of many more associations throughout Europe.
Connections
- coworker:
- J. J. Pohl
- coworker:
- Victor Toth
Josef Maria Eder became assistant to J. J. Pohl, professor of chemical technology in Vienna.
With Captain Victor Toth, Josef Maria Eder announced a lead intensifier and investigated the methods of dyeing photographic silver plates with the aid of ferricyanides, which were later to become very important.
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Born
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Died
1944 (aged 88) -
Ethnicity
Career
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1925
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1880
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1882
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1889 - 1923
Official Titles
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He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Science at the technical high school of Vienna (1930). He was a Knight of the Imperial Austrian Order of the Iron Cross and of the Leopold Order, Commander of the Austrian Francis-Joseph Order, Commander of the Saxon Albrecht Order with Star, an officer in the French Foreign Legion of Honor, and commander of the Swedish Wasa Order. During World War I he was decorated by Emperor Carl with the gold war cross for civil services, and awarded the great decoration for distinction by the Austrian Republic.