Johann Andreas von SegnerBorn 9 Oct 1704; died 5 Oct 1777 at age 72.German physicist and mathematician who recognized the surface tension of liquids. He discovered that every solid body has 3 axes of symmetry. He used Daniel Bernoulli's theoretical work on the “reaction effect”to produce a horizontal waterwheel the same principle which drives a modern lawn sprinkler, which influenced Euler to work on turbines. In 1751 Segner introduced the concept of the surface tension of liquids, likening it to a stretched membrane. His view that minute and imperceptible attractive forces maintain surface tension laid the foundation for the subsequent development of surface tension theory. He made an unsuccessful attempt to give a mathematical description of capillary action. |
