Victor Franz Hess was born on 24 June 1883 at Waldstein Castle inDeutschfeistritz,Styria, the son of Vinzenz Hess and Serafine Edle von Grossbauer-Waldstätt. His father was a royal forester in PrinceLouis of Oettingen-Wallerstein's service.[3]
Hess attendedGraz-Gymnasium from 1893 to 1901.[3][4] He then studied at theUniversity of Graz from 1901 to 1905 and received hisPh.D. in 1906 from theUniversity of Vienna,[5] where he stayed to do postdoctoral research until 1910.
In 1910, Hess became an assistant toStefan Meyer at theInstitute for Radium Research. In 1920, he was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Experimental Physics at theUniversity of Graz. In 1921, he took a leave of absence to become Director of the Research Laboratory at theUnited States Radium Corporation inNew Jersey, as well as Consulting Physicist for theUnited States Bureau of Mines inWashington, DC. In 1923, he returned to Graz, where he was appointed Ordinary Professor of Experimental Physics in 1925. In 1931, he was appointed Director of the Institute of Radiology at theUniversity of Innsbruck.[3] In 1937, he once again returned to Graz to become Director of the Institute of Physics.
Hess (center) on the return from his balloon flight, 1912
For many years, scientists had been puzzled by the levels ofionizing radiation measured in the atmosphere. The assumption at the time was that the radiation would decrease as the distance from the earth, the then assumed source of the radiation, increased. Theelectroscopes previously used gave an approximate measurement of the radiation but indicated that at greater altitude in the atmosphere the level of radiation might actually be higher than that on the ground. He approached this mystery first by greatly increasing the precision of the measuring equipment, and then by personally taking the equipment aloft in a balloon. He systematically measured the radiation at altitudes up to 5.3 kilometres (3.3 mi) during 1911–1912. The daring flights were made both by day and during the night, at significant risk to himself.[4]
The result of Hess' meticulous work was published in theProceedings of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and showed the level of radiation decreased up to an altitude of about 1 kilometre (0.6 mi), but above that the level increased considerably, with the radiation detected at 5 kilometres (3.1 mi), being about twice that at sea level.[8] His conclusion was that there was radiation penetrating the atmosphere from outer space, and his discovery was confirmed byRobert Millikan, who gave the radiation the namecosmic rays. His discovery opened the door to many new discoveries inparticle andnuclear physics.[4] In particular, both thepositron and themuon were first discovered in cosmic rays byCarl David Anderson. In 1936, Hess and Anderson shared theNobel Prize in Physics for their discoveries of cosmic rays and the positron, respectively.
In 1920, Hess married Marie Bertha Warner Breisky, who died of cancer in 1955.[9] The same year, he married Elizabeth M. Hoenke, who nursed Marie at the end of her life.[6]
^abcAngelo, Joseph A (2004).Nuclear Technology.Greenwood Press. pp. 121–124.ISBN1-57356-336-6.Victor Franz Hess was born on the 24th of June, 1883, in Waldstein Castle, near Peggau in Steiermark, Austria. His father, Vinzens Hess, was a forester in Prince Öttingen-Wallerstein's service and his mother was Serafine Edle von Grossbauer-Waldstätt. ...
^V. F. Hess (1912). "Über Beobachtungen der durchdringenden Strahlung bei sieben Freiballonfahrten (English translation)".Physikalische Zeitschrift.13:1084–1091.arXiv:1808.02927.
