Johannes Bosscha

Who was Johannes Bosscha?

Johannes Bosscha Jr. was a Dutch physicist.

Bosscha came from a family long known for their academic achievements. His great-grandfather and grandfather were classical scholars. His father, Johannes Bosscha Sr., was a professor of history and literature and also was minister of church-state relationships in two governments. From 1844–1848 Johannes Jr. attended a Latin school in Amsterdam, after which he enrolled at Leiden University. In 1854 he obtained his doctoral degree with a thesis on galvanometry. After a brief sojourn in Berlin he returned to the physics department in Leiden.

Here he made important investigations on galvanic polarization and the rapidity of sound waves. He initiated the mechanical theory of electrolysis, and he was one of the first to suggest the possibility of sending two messages simultaneously over the same wire. In 1858 he published "Conservation of Energy in Galvanic Currents", in which he applied the recently formulated first law of thermodynamics to electrical phenomena.

In 1860, Boscha became chair of natural sciences at the Koninklijke Militaire Academie in Breda and in 1863 became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.