History
1743
Ignaz von Weinhart zu Thierburg (1705-1787) founded an experimental cabinet - the so-called Armarium - gave lectures on mechanics and on Sundays courses for journeyman bricklayers and carpenters. He was the teacher of Peter Anich and Blasius Hueber.
1770
Foundation of an independent chair for physics 1st chair holder, 1770-1776, Franz Sales Stadler S.J. [1735-1788]
1776
Empress Maria Theresa donated an astronomical clock to the 'Physics Cabinet', which was made by the Augustinian monk P. Aurelius a S. Daniele in Vienna. The clock is currently housed in a temperature-controlled display case at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, IQOQI.
1805/06 - 1814/15
1817
A Zamboni pendulum was purchased. This device is an electric 'perpetuum mobile' and is operated by two Zamboni dry columns. It was in operation - with brief interruptions - from 1817 to 1970, almost 150 years!
1852-1867
Adalbert Carl von Waltenhofen was head of the institute ('Physikalisches Institut'). He is known for his pioneering work in the fields of electricity, magnetism and electrical engineering. In 1883, he founded the first electrical engineering institute in Austria in Vienna. The 'Waltenhofen Pendulum' impressively demonstrates the effects of eddy currents.
1867-1891
Leopold Pfaundler was head of the institute (proposed by Waltenhofen as his successor). In 1870 he was the first to generate a continuous dynamoelectric current (with a dynamo from Kravogl). On 24 Oct. 1874 he demonstrated the first telephone in Innsbruck at the 'Naturwissenschaftlicher Verein'. In 1888 he developed an apparatus for projecting Lissajous figures.
1931-1937
Victor Franz Hess was professor of physics in Innsbruck. He is known for his discovery of cosmic rays (Vienna 1913), for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1936. He founded a measuring station on the Hafelekar (2300 m) in order to continue his research into the origin of cosmic rays. It was at this station that an image of nuclear disintegration (caused by cosmic rays) was recorded for the first time. 2022 Award of the research station on the Hafelekar as an 'EPS Historic Site'
1938 - 1945
1997
13 October: Ceremonial opening of the museum by the institute's director Prof. Dr. A. Zeilinger.
Excerpt from the speech by Prof. Dr A. Denoth
...and it is no coincidence that it is the 13th of October that marks the opening of our 'Museum Corner'! 13 is an indivisible number, and the more than 200-year history of our institute, part of which can now be 'grasped' in the museum, should and must remain indivisibly linked to the institute.
2005
A special year:
300th birthday of the founder of experimental physics in Innsbruck
244 years of the Chair of Experimental Physics
International Year of Physics, WYP2005
2019
A special year:
Let's celebrate 350 years of Leopold Franzens University Innsbruck.
As early as the first academic year 1669/70, the first physics lecture was given by the former logic professor Anton Manicor S.J. as part of the 'Philosophical Propaedeuticum'. Caspar Schnierl S.J. was appointed as the first professor of physics in 1673; following the establishment of a chair for mathematics in 1677, physics was only offered as a sub-discipline within mathematics from 1677/78. It was not until almost 100 years later, in 1770, that an independent chair for physics was established again.
2023
Symposium Peter Anich CCC - The globes of Peter Anich