SKETCH OF GUSTAV ROBERT KIRCHHOFF. 121 



and related branches, was one of those fortunate young men, 

 says Prof. Heller, who appear, by the nature of their faculties, 

 to be specially adapted to their calling. His rare mathematical 

 talent adapted him to the use of analytical aids to such an ex- 

 tent that he could always readily bring the best methods to the 

 solution of any problem. On September 4, 1847, he took his 

 degree from the University of Konigsberg. In the following 

 spring he began his professional career at the University of Ber- 

 lin as a Privat-Docent He had already, while a student, in 1845, 

 published a paper in Poggendorff 's "Annals" on electric con- 

 duction in a thin plate, and specially a circular one, to which 

 were appended two theorems which have since become generally 

 known as Kirchhoff 's laws. This was followed by other valu- 

 able papers on electrical questions, among which were those on 

 conduction in curved sheets, on Ohm's law, on the distribution 

 of electricity on two influencing spheres, on the discharge of the 

 Leyden jar, on the motion of electricity in submarine cables, etc. 

 Among them also is a paper on the determination of the con- 

 stant on which depends the intensity of induced currents, in 

 which is involved the absolute measurement of electric resist- 

 ance in a definite wire. 



In 1850 he was appointed Extraordinary Professor and Co- 

 director of the Physical Institute in Breslau, where he remained 

 four years, and formed a life -long fellowship and scientific 

 brotherhood with Bunsen. In 1854, Bunsen having preceded 

 him thither, he removed to Heidelberg, where he had been 

 chosen regular Professor of Physics, in place of Jolly, who had 

 been transferred to Munich. Here he lived and taught for 

 twenty years, the bloom-period of his life. The brightest days 

 in the history of this great university, to whose fame and pre- 

 eminence Kirchhoff contributed very materially, fell during the 

 same period. To the general public, says Robert von Helmholtz, 

 hardly anything was then known of Kirchhoff. His labors at 

 Berlin and Breslau, being in a field wholly theoretical, had at- 

 tracted the attention only of experts. " There was, therefore, 

 some surprise in Heidelberg when the slender, remarkably 

 youthful, modest, even bashful North German appeared, her- 

 alded by Bunsen's warm recommendations. His refined, ani- 

 mated speech, his courteous and attractive demeanor, his fine 

 sense of humor and his wit, soon won him the liking of all men 

 with whom he came in contact. He was, therefore, a welcome 

 participant in all the social gatherings of the circle into which 

 he fell. His friendship with Bunsen became very close. Bunsen 

 was thirteen years his elder, strong and broad-shouldered, with 

 a lively, commanding temperament, making his influence felt 

 upon every one. The two men were thus quite different in their 



