Waloddi Weibull

Who was Waloddi Weibull?

Ernst Hjalmar Waloddi Weibull was a Swedish engineer, scientist, and mathematician.

Weibull came from a family that had strong ties to Scania. He was a cousin of the historian brothers Lauritz, Carl Gustaf and Curt Weibull, of whom especially the first is noteworthy for introducing a stricter criticism in the interpretation of medieval Scandinavian sources.

He joined the Swedish Coast Guard in 1904 as a midshipman. Weibull moved up the ranks with promotion to sublieutenant in 1907, Captain in 1916 and Major in 1940. While in the coast guard he took courses at the Royal Institute of Technology. In 1924 he graduated and became a full professor. Weibull obtained his doctorate from the University of Uppsala in 1932. He was employed in Swedish and German industry as a consulting engineer.

In 1914, while on expeditions to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean on the research ship Albatross, Weibull wrote his first paper on the propagation of explosive waves. He developed the technique of using explosive charges to determine the type of ocean bottom sediments and their thickness. The same technique is still used today in offshore oil exploration.