Johann Heinrich Lambert: Biography
A Summary Overview of Lambert's Life (1728-1777)August 26, 1728
Lambert is born in Mülhausen (Alsace)
1746
Secretary of J.R. Iselin in Basel
1748-1756
Hofmeister (private tutor) of the children of Graf Peter von Salis in Chur (CH)
- 1752: Lambert begins his Monatsbuch
, first
scientific papers - 1755: First scientific publication
- 1756: Accompanies the children von Salis on a Bildungs-tour through Europa.
Academic tour through Europe (with the Salis children)
- 1756: Göttingen, acquaintance with A.G. Kästner, Tobias Mayer
- 1757-8: Holland, acquantaince with Petrus Muschenbroek
- 1759: Paris, acquaintance with d'Alembert, Messier
- 1759: South of France (Marseille, Nice), North of Italy (Turin, Milan)
Back in Chur and Basel
1759
Augsburg, acquaintace with G.F. Brander
1759-1763
Founding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich
1764-1777
Member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin
- 1764: Lambert becomes member of the Berlin Academy on the recommendation of Sulzer (and a little help from Euler)
- 1766: Euler leaves Berlin and Lagrange comes to Berlin to become Director of the Mathematical Class
- 1770: Beginning of Lambert's mathematical tables project
- 1773: Beginning of Lambert's astronomical tables project and of the reformation of the Ephemeriden
Lambert dies in Berlin
Biographical Sources on Lambert's Life
Obituaries
J.E. Bode, Preface to the Astronomisches Jahrbuch oder Ephemeriden für das Jahr 1779
S. Formey, Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres, 1778, pp. 72-90.
Chr. Lichtenberg, Teutscher Merkur, 1777, pp.259-278
Biographies
M. Graf (1829), Johann Heinrich Lamberts Leben.