Peter Theophil Riess

Peter Theophil Riess (1804 to 1883) was a German physicist known mostly for his work in electricity, particularly friction electricity, and also in electromagnetic induction. In the latter field he developed the spark micrometer, sometimes called the Riess micrometer, and the Riess spiral coils, both of which Heinrich Hertz later used in the experiments that proved the propagation of electromagnetic waves. The son of a wealthy jeweller in Berlin, he received his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1831 and stayed with his ailing father after graduation to help run the business, and even after his father died he never sought an academic teaching position. He was nevertheless a fellow of the Berlin Academy, its first Jewish member, and published prolifically in its journal and in the Annalen der Physik, as well as several books. A friend of most of the leading members of the Berlin intelligentsia of his time, he had interests in history, literature, art and music, and he died in Berlin at the age of 79.