Name: Jordy Aprillianza Budiang

NIM: D41114308

Dept.: Electrical Engineering

Class: A

Biography of William Sturgeon

W

illiam Sturgeon was an English electrical engineer. In 1825 he built the first practical electromagnet, in 1832 invented the commutator for electric motors and in 1836 made the first moving-coil galvanometer and carried out research into atmospheric charge. His Annals of Electricity (1836) was the first journal of its kind in Britain. His electromagnet was capable of supporting more than its own weight.

This device led to the invention of the telegraph, the electric motor, and numerous other devices basic to modern technology. William Sturgeon was born in Whittington near Kirkby Lonsdale, North Lancashire, England, on 22 May 1783 as the son of John and Betsy (Adcock) Sturgeon. His father was a shoemaker. Sturgeons father has been described as an idle poacher who neglected his family. Sturgeon received little formal education and, on the death of his mother, was apprenticed to another cobbler when he was just ten years old. It was an unhappy experience and he eventually ran away to join the army.

He entered the Westmorland Militia (1802) and then joined the Royal Artillery in 1804 and served until 1820 when he was 37 years of age. There he borrowed books to teach himself the basics of language, mathematics, and physics. He soon became popular with the cadets for his electric shock-inducing kites, and began to make scientific apparatus. Inspired by a bad thunderstorm, he began to investigate electrical discharges such as lightening, a study which he continued after leaving the army.

After leaving the military he opened up a boot making business in Woolwich for a short period of time. While stationed at Woolwich he studied natural philosophy (physics) at night and occasionally lectured on natural philosophy. It became apparent that he was extremely skilled in this role. During this time he also became a member of the Woolwich Literary Society.

In 1824, he was appointed lecturer in science and philosophy at the East India Companys Royal Military College at Addiscombe in Surrey, England. He especially liked Oersteds experiment of 1820 because it linked electricity and magnetism for public entertainment and edification. In order to demonstrate electrical experiments he needed equipment that was expensive and difficult to operate. While searching for affordable equipment he invented the first practical electromagnet. Sturgeon first applied his ideas of electromagnetism into a solenoid device.

He wrapped several turns of wire around an iron core to produce magnetism when an electrical current was passed through the wire. He noticed that the electricity had set up a magnetic field that was concentrated in the iron core. He next varnished the iron to insulate it from the wound wires, and then hit on the idea of the horseshoe shape. He observed that each coil reinforced the next coil because they formed parallel wires with the current moving in the same direction.

In 1825, Sturgeon then of the Royal Academy of Woolwich and with some help from Francis Watkins of London constructed the first practical electromagnet by refining Sturgeons original ideas. Along with Amperes ideas they also pieced together the discoveries of Arago, and took their ideas a step further to develop their electromagnet.

Their electromagnet consisted of a horseshoe shaped piece of iron to form a core with 16 turns of wire wrapped around it without touching each other. When they passed current through the wire, the magnet attracted 9 pounds of metal objects (4 kg or 20 times its own weight). Their practical electromagnet was exhibited in London in the same year, and for this invention Sturgeon received the silver medal of the Royal Society of Arts in 1825.

Sturgeon married Mrs Hilton, and lost all three of their children in infancy. In 1829, he was married a second time to Mary Bromley, and again their one child died in infancy. They then adopted a daughter, Ellen Coates who later became Mrs Luke Brierley.

He authored Experimental Researches in 1830. By 1832, Sturgeon was well established as a public lecturer on natural philosophical subjects and as a philosophical instrument maker. From 1832, he lectured at the Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science in London which had just formed.

The Gallery was formed by a variety of patrons, rich and middle class that ranged from wealthy philosopher Ralph Watson to engineer Thomas Telford. The Gallery blended instruction with amusement to promote the arts, invention exhibits, manufacturers, and science. The Gallery was open to the public without charge, and relied on their gratuities. At this time electricity held considerable interest among the English public. The Gallery operated only briefly, however (1832-1840).

Sturgeon built an electric motor in 1832 and invented the commutator, an integral part of most modern electric motors. He also improved the voltaic battery and worked on the theory of thermoelectricity. From more than 500 kite observations he established that in serene weather the atmosphere is invariably charged positively with respect to the Earth, becoming more positive with increasing altitude.

Sturgeon founded the journal Annals of Electricity in 1836 and edited it until it folded in 1843, 10 volumes after its start. His journal was the first of its type on electricity in England. Also in 1836, he invented the first suspended coil galvanometer, and thereafter several electromagnetic machines of various types.

Sturgeons Galvanometer

The basic galvanometer, devised by William Sturgeon in 1825, allows all of the various combinations of current and magnetic needle direction to be tried out. By making suitable connections to the screw terminals, current can flow to the right or to the left, both above and below the needle. Current can be made to travel in a loop to double the effect, and, with the aid of two identical external galvanic circuits, the currents in the two wires can be made parallel and in the same direction. Note that the wires are insulated from each other where they cross.

Sturgeon refuted Faradays claims that he had empirical and quantitative proof for the quantity of electricity and its visible effects of his voltameter. Sturgeon did not think Faraday validated his device sufficiently. He thought other procedures should have been used.

Sturgeon pointed out that the voltameter deflections departed on the initial amount of current and in the case of batteries the initial current is the minimum. He even criticized Faradays experiment on the chemical effects of electricity. Faraday used different chemicals than that used in batteries that he was decomposing. The debate between Faraday and Sturgeon occurred 8 years after Faraday constructed and published his device. The debate only pointed out that researchers at that time had no standard approach in validating their measurements.

William Sturgeon was also founder of the Electrical Society of London. The Electrical Society of London was formed for the electricians of London in 1836 to serve as a forum to members and guests for reading and discussing papers on electrical experiments. The Society had diversified interests in electricity such as: electrifying rocks, minerals, animals, and vegetables, and included these subjects in their public lectures. At first, members met weekly in Lowther Arcade at the Laboratory of Science of the well known London instrument maker E.M. Clarke. The Electrical Society of London established rules, elected officers, and admitted two kinds of members, resident and nonresident.

The activities of the Society (e.g., public lectures) were immediately popular so meetings were moved to the Adelaide Gallery (where Sturgeon worked) to accommodate the rapidly increasing attendance. The Society had some influential members like J.P. Gassiot, a wealthy businessman; Andrew Grosse, a country gentleman; famous physician Golding Bird; and electricians E.M. Clarke and William Sturgeon.

Social and professional distances were maintained between the electricians and the elite scientists of London (i.e., Faraday, Wollaston). The elite scientists looked at the Electrical Society of London with skepticism. The activities of the electricians were also not well funded. Members of the Society gave public lectures at the Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science and often conducted research privately rather than at the prestigious Royal Institution or the Royal Society.

Also, the electricians associated with William Halse, designer of a very popular faradic electrical battery, who was labeled an irregular rather than an orthodox practitioner of medical electricity. The electricians lectured in physics and electricity at the military establishments rather than at universities. The electricians probably did not hold the degrees for qualifying as professors of the universities.

The Electrical Society of London initially used the journal Annals of Electricity to report its activities and publish any science related to electricity. By 1839, as the Society flourished with its 80 members (50% were resident members) an official publication Proceedings of the Electrical Society of London was in circulation. The Proceedings or activities of the Society were also printed in the English newspapers.

In 1840, William Sturgeon was appointed superintendent of the Royal Victoria Gallery of Practical Science in Manchester, England, which he held for four years (1840-1844). While there he joined the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and received grants from the organization to conduct research.

Also in 1840 Sturgeon improved the cell devised by Alessandro Volta. This cell had certain inherent weaknesses any impurity in the zinc plates used caused erosion of the electrode. Sturgeon developed a long lasting battery that consisted of a single cell cylinder of cast iron into which a cylinder of amalgamated rolled zinc was placed.

Discs of millboard located between the cast iron cell and the cylinder of zinc prevented contact by the different metals. Dilute sulfuric acid was used to charge the battery. Like Grove, Sturgeon measured his batterys chemical capability through the decomposition of water, and heating a wire to determine the caloric power. In 1843, he published Twelve Elementary Lectures on Galvanism, edited Magnetical Advertisements, and was an itinerant lecturer.

However, projects to establish popular science galleries in Manchester all failed because of lack of money. He was ultimately dismissed, and from 1844 until his death he earned a living by lecturing and demonstrating. He used his magnetic electrical machine (dynamo) to give shocks, and demonstrated them on peoples arms and on freshly killed rabbits.

In 1847 he was given a grant of $200 by the Royal Bounty Fund, to which a government pension of $50 a year was added later. This was insufficient for his needs, however. He published the collected works Scientific Researches in 1850. He died penniless, better known in Europe than in his native England, on 4 December 1850 at Prestwick, Manchester, after a long illness and depression. William Sturgeon, inventor of the electro-magnet, known as The electrician is buried under a simple stone in the churchyard of the Parish Church of Saint Marys.

Sturgeons career in electricity exemplified the group of English electricians at the time who built scientific instruments and lectured. These electricians were not members of the Royal Society, but they portrayed electrical science in exciting and illustrative fashions. Sturgeon published numerous articles in journals on electricity and magnetism during his career. Additionally, Sturgeons career as an electrician included the improvement of devices for electromagnetic research, the invention of a dynamo in 1823, an electromagnetic rotary engine in 1832, and an electromagnetic coil machine in 1837.

He also, at one time described a process of amalgamating zinc plates in batteries by using a film of mercury. Sturgeon had the ability to imagine an instrument, and then construct it through skills developed earlier as a shoemaker. A monument to him, a poor man of science, is placed in Kirkby Lonsdale Church in the Lake District, which commemorates many of his inventions and discoveries.

Name: Jordy Aprillianza Budiang

NIM: D41114308

Dept.: Electrical Engineering

Class: A

Biography of Nikola Tesla

Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla was born in July of 1856, in what is now Croatia. He came to the United States in 1884, and briefly worked with Thomas Edison before the two parted ways. He sold several patent rights, including those to his alternating-current machinery, to George Westinghouse. His 1891 invention, the "Tesla coil," is still used in radio technology today. Tesla died in New York City on January 7, 1943.

Famous Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in what is now Smiljan, Croatia. Tesla's interest in electrical invention was likely spurred by his mother, Djuka Mandic, who invented small household appliances in her spare time while her son was growing up. Tesla's father, Milutin Tesla, was a priest. After studying in the 1870s at the Realschule, Karlstadt (later renamed the Johann-Rudolph-Glauber Realschule Karlstadt); the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria; and the University of Prague, Tesla began preparing for a trip to America.

Tesla came to the United States in 1884, and soon began working with famed inventor and business mogul Thomas Edison. The two worked together for a brief period before parting ways due to a conflicting business-scientific relationship, attributed by historians to their incredibly different personalities: While Edison was a power figure who focused on marketing and financial success, Tesla was a commercially out-of-tune and somewhat vulnerable, yet extremely pivotal inventor, who pioneered some of history's the most important inventions. His inventions include the "Tesla coil," developed in 1891, and an alternating-current electrical system of generators, motors and transformersboth of which are still used widely today.

On the AC electrical system alone, Tesla held 40 basic U.S. patents, which he later sold to George Westinghouse, an American engineer and business man who was determined to supply the nation with the Tesla's AC system. He would succeed in doing just that, not long after purchasing Tesla's patents. Around this time, conflict arose between Tesla and Edison, as Edison was determined to sell his direct-current system to the nation. According to the Tesla Memorial Society of New York, Tesla-Westinghouse ultimately won out because Tesla's system was "a superior technology," presenting greater "progress of both America and the world" than Edison's DC system. Outside of his AC system patents, Tesla sold several other patent rights to Westinghouse.

At the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago, Tesla conducted demonstrations of his AC system, which soon became the standard power system of the 20th century, and has remained the worldwide standard ever since. Two years later, in 1895, Tesla designed the first hydroelectric power plant at Niagara Falls, a feat that was highly publicized throughout the world.

Around 1900nearly a decade later after inventing the "Tesla coil"Tesla began working on his boldest project yet: Building a global communication systemthrough a large, electrical towerfor sharing information and providing free electricity throughout the world. The system, however, never came to fruition; it failed due to financial constraints, and Tesla had no choice but to abandon the Long Island, New York laboratory that housed his work on the tower project, Wardenclyffe. In 1917, the Wardenclyffe site was sold, and Tesla's tower was destroyed.

"It's a sad, sad story," Larry Page, Google's co-founder, said of Tesla in a 2008 interview withForbesmagazine. "[Tesla] couldn't commercialize anything. He could barely fund his own research."

In addition to his AC system, coil and tower project, throughout his career, Tesla discovered, designed and developed ideas for a number of important inventionsmost of which were officially patented by other inventorsincluding dynamos (electrical generators similar to batteries) and the induction motor. He was also a pioneer in the discovery of radar technology, X-ray technology and the rotating magnetic fieldthe basis of most AC machinery. Tesla was not without his major faults, however, as he supported the use of population control via eugenics and forced sterilizations.

Name: Jordy Aprillianza Budiang

NIM: D41114308

Dept.: Electrical Engineering

Class: A

Biography of Joseph Henry

J

oseph Henry was born on December 17, 1797, in Albany, New York. Joseph Henry was one of the first great American scientists after Benjamin Franklin. Many parallels exist between his life and work and that of the English physicist Michael Faraday. Like Faraday, Henry was born into a poor family. Both received little formal education and both were apprenticed at an early age, Faraday to a book binder, and Henry to a watchmaker at the age of 13. Both, finally made lasting contributions to the field of electrical research.

Henry's interest in science was sparked by an odd coincidence. He had chased his pet rabbit underneath a church. Noticing that some floorboards were missing, 16-year-old Joseph climbed into the church and found a shelf of books. He began looking throughLectures on Experimental Philosophyand was soon hooked on science. He entered the Albany Academy in New York and later began to teach at country schools to earn an income. He graduated from the Academy and was leaning toward studying medicine when a surveying job turned up, and that steered him toward engineering.

In 1826 Henry was back at the Albany Academy, but this time as a teacher of mathematics and science. In 1820, Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851) had discovered that the flow of an electric current produced a magnetic field around the wire. This amazed scientists and many, including Henry and Faraday, began to experiment with magnetism. In 1829 Henry learned that William Sturgeon (1783-1850) had built an electromagnet that could lift nine pounds (4 kg). This was quite remarkable, but Henry believed he could create a magnet that was much stronger. The secret was to wrap more wire around the iron core, overlapping the levels. However, wire in that era was not insulated and so wrapping one level over another caused a short circuit. Henry got around the problem by the laborious process of insulating the copper wire by hand, using strips of his wife's silk petticoats.

Now that he had insulated wire, Henry proceeded to experiment. By 1831 he had created an electromagnet that could lift 750 pounds (340 kg). Later that same year he gave a demonstration at Yale University and lifted more than 2,000pounds (900 kg). For this feat he received an appointment as professor.

In addition to his large electromagnets, Henry also built small ones. In 1831he ran a wire more than one mile (1.6 km) and attached a device consisting of an electromagnet, a movable iron arm, and a spring. At the other end of the wire was a battery and key switch. When Henry pressed the key, activating the current, the distant electromagnet engaged, attracting a metal arm with a click. Releasing the key cut the electric flow, and the spring forced the arm back to its rest position--the first telegraph.

There was a practical limit to the length of the wire that could be usedthe longer the wire, the greater the resistance, which resulted in less current. Georg Ohm (1787-1854) had devised a law by which resistance could be calculated. Henry found an easy way around the resistance problem in 1835 by inventing the electric relay.

Near the close of the 1830s, Henry had a chance encounter with a man who had very little electrical knowledge, but was extremely interested in electromagnets and relays. Henry believed that the discoveries of science should be for the good of all mankind, so he never patented any of his devices. The man, Samuel F. B. Morse, received a great deal of advice and information from Henry. In 1840 Morse took out a patent on the electric telegraph and became a very rich man.

This was not the first time Henry had been cheated. In 1830, the teaching load at the Albany Academy monopolized Henry's time to such an extent that he had only the month of August in which to conduct research and experiment. In August of that year Henry discovered the principal of electric induction, the process in which an electric current in one coil of wire can set up a current in another coil. If the flow of electricity can produce a magnetic field, he reasoned, a magnetic field should be able to induce an electric current. But when the end of August arrived, Henry had not completed his investigation. He decided to set the work aside and return to it the following August. It was with considerable shock that Henry read Michael Faraday's announcement in 1831 of the discovery of electric induction. Rushing back to his experiments, Henry published a report of his own discovery, but he was too late; Faraday received credit for the discovery. To his own credit, Henry never argued about Faraday's priority, but privately he did resent that credit had gone elsewhere.

Henry, however, did get credit for including in his paper a discovery that Faraday had neglected to write about: the discovery of self-induction. A coil carrying electric current not only induces a flow in another coil, it can induce a current in itself. In 1834 Faraday discovered self-induction independently, but this time Henry got the credit. Estonian physicist Heinrich Lenz (1804-1865) also made the discovery independently and took it farther than both Henry and Faraday. Self-inductance became an important part in the design of electric circuits.

In 1831 Henry published a paper in which he described the working of an electric motor. Ten years earlier Faraday had built a motor, but it was little more than a toy. Henry's motor was more practical, but until Faraday developed the electric generator, there was no way to adequately power the motor. It is Henry's design that is used for motors in electrical appliances today.

In 1842 Henry anticipated a discovery that has been credited to Heinrich Rudolph Hertz. Henry discovered that he could magnetize needles in a basement with an electric spark from two floors above, correctly ascribing it to electromagnetic wave propagation. In another experiment, he magnetized a needle by utilizing a lightning flash eight miles away.

In addition to describing the mechanism of an electric motor, Henry was involved in many other endeavors. In 1846 he became the first secretary of the New Smithsonian Institution and encouraged the communication of scientific knowledge around the globe. Two years later he projected the image of the sun on a screen, made careful measurements of temperature, and discovered that the mysterious sunspots were relatively cooler than the rest of the sun. He used the telegraph to obtain weather reports from across the country, initiating a system that led to the founding of the United States Weather Bureau. During the Civil War he recommended the construction of ironclad warships, advice which was eventually followed. On May 13, 1878, Henry died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 80. He was finally honored in 1893 when the International Electrical Congress agreed to name the unit of inductance the Henry.

Name: Jordy Aprillianza Budiang

NIM: D41114308

Dept.: Electrical Engineering

Class: A

Biography of Gustav Robert Kirchhoff

G

ustav Robert Kirchhoff was born on March 12, 1824, in Knigsberg, East Prussia, the son of a lawyer. He attended the local gymnasium and entered the University of Knigsberg at the age of 18. Among his teachers were Franz Neumann, the noted theoretical physicist, and Friedrich Richelot, the mathematician. Shortly after he received his doctorate in 1847, he married Richelot's daughter, Clara; they had two sons and two daughters. Also in 1847, he received a rarely awarded travel grant from the university for a study trip to Paris, but the political situation forced him to cancel the plans. In 1848 Kirchhoff became privat dozent in Berlin, and 2 years later he obtained the post of extraordinary (associate) professor at Breslau. It was there that he first met Robert Bunsen. By 1854 both Kirchhoff and Bunsen were working together in Heidelberg.

The investigation of spectra with prisms had been going on for decades. There had also been several guesses made as to the identity between some lines in the solar spectrum and in spectra produced in laboratories. But it was Kirchhoff who, one afternoon in the summer of 1859, looked at the interaction of sunlight and the light of table salt burning in the flame of the Bunsen burner and said, "There must be a fundamental story here." When he returned to the laboratory the next day, he had the solution to his observation. It is known as Kirchhoff's law of radiation: the relation between the powers of emission and the powers of absorption for rays of the same wavelength is constant for all bodies at the same temperature. This law also implies that the bodies absorb more readily the radiation of such wavelengths as they tend to emit. Furthermore, the law implies that the greater the opacity of a body, the more complete its spectrum, and that the true emission spectrum of a substance is obtained in its gaseous state. Kirchhoff's now famous paper, written with Bunsen and published in 1859, also stated that "the dark lines [Fraunhofer lines] of the solar spectrum which are not caused by the terrestrial atmosphere, arise from the presence in the glowing solar atmosphere of those substances which in a flame produce bright lines in the same position."

Kirchhoff and Bunsen became celebrities overnight. Subsequent scientific developments did full justice to the elation of the moment. Spectroscopy turned out to be the magic key to a great number of practical discoveries, and half a century later it ushered in the era of modern atomic physics. In a sense, Kirchhoff's great success in spectroscopy drew attention away from his varied contributions to every branch of physics. He occupied the chair of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin from 1875 until his death on October 17, 1887.

Name: Jordy Aprillianza Budiang

NIM: D41114308

Dept.: Electrical Engineering

Class: A

Biography of Heinrich Rudolph Hertz

H

einrich Rudolph Hertz was born on February 22, 1857, in a well-to-do family in Hamburg, Germany. His parents began his education with the intention of shaping his career in architecture and engineering. But soon they realized his interest in pure science and research. He was a curious child with a habit of observing and learning about new ideas and things. Heinrich joined Berlin University, where a person of rare intelligence, versatility and multifaceted personality Professor Hermann Von Helmholtz, taught various subjects like physiology, anatomy, physics and mathematics.

On the basis of his researches in physics, he conducted research in measurement of the speed of the throbbing of arteries. He produced electromagnetic waves in the laboratory and analyzed their wavelength and speed. He also conducted analysis of oscillation and speed. He also conducted analysis of oscillation and speed of sound waves, principles of rhythm in music, gave a new statement on the conservation of energy; principles of the colour spectrum, etc. Besides, he also invented the ophthalmo-scope, to check eye diseases. This equipment is used even today for observation and correct diagnosis of the eye diseases.

Hertz learnt a lot under the able guidance of Helmholtz. At the same time, Helmholtz also realized that he had a very talented pupil in Hertz. Both reciprocated each other with satisfaction. Hertz graduated in 1880 and was soon appointed as his deputy by Helmholtz in his research work in physics.

In 1883, he was appointed professor of physics at Kiel in Northern Germany. He joined it and worked on Maxwells electromagnetic theory. The theory of electromagnetism was first published in the form of an essay in 1865. Many of the present day advancements in science are based on this theory. Hertzs initiation into research brought him fame and provided him a new direction in research. He now concentrated on the experimental study of implication thought out the Maxwells mathematical equations. He wondered if electromagnetic waves could also travel like light waves. He also began to visualize on the experiments that could be conducted on the subject. Meanwhile, he joined Karlsruhe Polytechnic as professor of physics. Now he thought of conducting research on the production and propagation of electromagnetic waves. He wondered how much time it would take to propagate such waves from one place to another and how to accurately measure such a small interval of time.

Heinrich constructed the worlds first radio transmitter and radio receiver for the purpose, generating radio waves. Prior to this no one had heard about it. Hertzs equipment later laid the foundation for invention of the modern radio, radar and television. He conducted his experiments in a small 10m X 10m room. A wave traveling from one end to the other and back covered a distance of 20 meters. It was very difficult to measure the time taken by the wave to cover this distance as it was expected to be less than one microsecond. A brilliant idea struck him a Leyden jar could be used for the purpose. A Leyden Jar (a type of capacitor) could be used as an instrument to measure time because the electric discharge that took place between two points was a very fast process. Another thought that struck him was that there could be some conductor, which could produce electric discharge.

Hertz demonstrated the production and propagation of radio waves (electromagnetic waves of long wavelength). Next, he wanted to prove that however brief, a wave took specific time to another point. For this he once again returned to sound waves and dwelt on Helmholtzs work. Waves originating from the same source but reaching destination by separated paths could either be weak or very powerful. In terms of frequently modulation one can call them constructive or destructive. As the receiver moves from one point to the other, the vibration will cease at a certain nodal point which in scientific terminology is called destructive interference. The distance between two such points is equal to half the wavelength. Hertz succeeded in measuring the wavelength of an electromagnetic radiation using the phenomenon of interference.

Thereafter, Hertz studied many properties of the electromagnetic waves: like the radiations of light, these electromagnetic waves can be focused, distorted, reflected, refracted, polarized, etc. Similarly, he also measured the speed of the electromagnetic waves, which equaled the speed of light, i.e. 3 X 108 metre/second. Thus, through a series of experiments Hertz proved that the electromagnetic waves were quite similar to light waves. My experiments have proved the solidarity of Maxwells doctrines. He would say this in all modesty.

In 1889, at a meeting held at Heidelberg, the Association for the advancement of Natural Sciences described and discussed Hertzs experiments and findings. Researchers and scientists present at the meeting lauded his efforts. At the age of 32, Hertz was appointed professor of physics at the University of Bonn. Hertz met an untimely death, due to blood poisoning, at the age of 37 in 1894. The SI unit of frequency, the Hetz (Hz), is named after him.