Background
Friedrich Johann Karl Becke was born on December 31, 1855, in Prague, Austria-Hungary. Becke’s father, Friedrich, originally a bookseller in Prague, became a railway employee at Pilsen in 1866 and later at Vienna.
1929
Becke was awarded the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London, the medal which is normally given to geologists who have had a significant influence by means of a substantial body of excellent research in science.
Friedrich Johann Karl Becke (31 December 1855 in Prague – 18 June 1931 in Vienna) was an Austrian mineralogist and petrographer.
University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Becke enrolled in 1874 at the University of Vienna, where he studied geology.
Friedrich Johann Karl Becke, an Austrian mineralogist and petrographer.
Friedrich Johann Karl Becke, an Austrian mineralogist and petrographer.
A memorial plate of Friedrich Johann Karl Becke, an Austrian mineralogist and petrographer.
Friedrich Johann Karl Becke, an Austrian mineralogist and petrographer.
geologist mineralogist Petrographer scientist
Friedrich Johann Karl Becke was born on December 31, 1855, in Prague, Austria-Hungary. Becke’s father, Friedrich, originally a bookseller in Prague, became a railway employee at Pilsen in 1866 and later at Vienna.
After attending several schools, Becke enrolled in 1874 at the University of Vienna, where he studied under the geologist Gustav Tschermak, who also published the journal Mineralogische undpetrographische Mitteilungen. Becke soon devoted himself to mineralogy, and in 1878 he became Tschermak’s assistant. He gained notice in 1877 with his studies on Greek rock formations and his inaugural dissertation, Kryslalline Schiefer des niederösterreichischen Waldviertels (1882), the first modern petrographical study of the metamorphic rocks of Austria.
After studying at the University of Vienna, in 1882, at the age of twenty-seven, Becke was appointed associate professor (and later full professor) of mineralogy at the University of the Polish town of Czernowitz (now Chernovtsy, Ukraine). While there, he discovered the differential solubility of dextrose crystals (1889).
In 1890 Becke was called to the University of Prague. Three years later he developed the method for the relative determination of the refraction of light by means of what since 1896 has been known as the Becke line. The procedure for measuring the angle of optical axes, which had been developed by François E. Mallard, was extended by Beeke in 1895 for application to microscopic preparations. The following year he presented the Becke volume rule, which states that - assuming isothermal conditions - with increased pressure, the formation of minerals with the smallest molecular volume (the greatest density) will be favored.
In 1898 Becke went to the University of Vienna, where he attempted to classify the solidified rocks (plutonic rocks and lava). In 1903 he put forth the differentiation - based on their chemical composition and still used today - between the Atlantic group (of alkalic origin, mainly sodium and potassium) and the Pacific group (of calc-alkalic origin, characterized by high calcium and aluminum content). The mineral composition and the chemistry of both groups were correlated by Becke with E. Suess’s geotectonic concepts of an Atlantic Coast type (stratum) and a Pacific Coast type (mountain chain).
Becke’s work on crystalline schists was especially extensive. For the elucidation of the crystallization stratification he used Riecke’s rule, according to which mineral grains are relatively soluble in the direction of the applied pressure, whereas crystallization will proceed more rapidly perpendicular to the direction of applied pressure; thus the parallel planar texture of many rocks (“foliation”) develops independent of their original layering, and is characteristic for many metamorphic rocks. Becke’s explanation for the process, in general, considers only pressure as the cause, i.e., the process is static. According to more recent research, this is controversial.
For transformations in the solid state, Becke introduced the terms crystalloblastic, granohlastic, porphyroblastic, blastophytic, blastogranitic, and blastoporphyric.
In 1909 Becke originated the term diaphoresis for the adjustment of highly metamorphosed rocks to the conditions prevailing at lesser depths; the process is also known as regressive metamorphism. In later works, he also dealt with the classification of the facies of metamorphic rocks, the mass movement during metamorphosis, and the graphic representation of rock analyses. His last publications dealt with the crystal systems and the nomenclature of the thirty-two symmetry point groups.
From 1899 on, Becke was the editor of Tschermak’s Mineralogische undpeirographische Mittcilungen, Volume 38 of which was dedicated to him in honor of his seventieth birthday. He was a director of the Mineralogical Institute of the University of Vienna from 1906 until 1927. Immediately after World War I, Becke was rector of the University of Vienna and retired in 1927.
Becke did fundamental work in the elucidation of metamorphism, combining exact observations with bold and sophisticated theoretical considerations.
Becke was a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (then the Prussian Academy of Sciences and Humanities) and an honorary member of the Geological Society of Sweden (1916). He was also a member of the following organizations: the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Sciences of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1911 he was appointed a member and a secretary-general of the Viennese Academy of Sciences.