History of Computers - Friedrich Reintzer

Although less known in the world of computing as others, in 1888 Friedrich Reintzer discovered an amazing variation of cholesteryl benzoate, which we now know of as Liquid Crystals as they were later named by Otto Lehmann.

Friedrich Reintzer

Bio

Reinitzer grew up in a German family in Prague. He began his career as a chemist at the German Technical University in Prague and in 1883 he left the university with a large knowledge of chemical experimentation. In 1885 he went to the Technical University in Graz. There he took a prominent role in the university as the rector, but it was while he was at the university that he made a large discovery. In 1888 he noticed a strange behaviour in solid oranic compounds, specifically cholesteryl benzoate, when they were heated to extreme degrees. Most importantly he found that there were two melting points of what would later be called liquid crystals. He latter worked together with physicist Otto Lehmann, to verify and continue his studies, and it was then that Lehmann named the compound liquid crystals because of the unique properties of the compound that gave it both the properties of a solid and a liquid at the same time. The discovery attracted large amounts of attention because at the time no element or compound had been found with properties even remotely similar to this. However, because of the current level of technology available, there was no practical use for the liquid crystals and because further investigation of the subject proved to be quite expensive, interest in the strange new material quickly faded and was dropped until more than a century later. Although Otto Lehmann gets the credit of naming the compound, the due credit of it's discovery and analysis of properties goes entirely to Reintzer.

Significance

Although their significance may not have been noticed back in 1888, liquid crystals have entirely reshaped the modern image of a computer's display. Before LCDs, the CRT(Cathode Ray Tube) display was the accepted industry standard. While these monitors were very capable of displaying all information needed at a fast refresh rate with high definition and color quality, there was no denying the fact that these boxes were bulky and impractical, especially for the users of laptops and other portable computer devices. LCDs are capable of distorting light to create millions of different combinations of shades of colors that match their much larger predecessors at about the same refresh rate, and sometimes even higher. LCDs are the new industry standard and may continue to be so for the next few years, a decade, or even longer. Thanks to the work of Reintzer more than 120 years ago, liquid crystals were redily available and their properties thouroughly studied to make them useable for the modern display.

External Links

http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/quartz/inventors/liquid.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Reinitzer

Page Creator: Logan Elliott