Emanuel Goldberg
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| Emanuel Goldberg (Image rights) |
Emanuel Goldberg (*31.08. 1881 in Moscow, +13.09.1970 in Tel Aviv) was a physicist, inventor and entrepreneur and of great influence to the German and international photo industry in the beiginning of the 20th century. [1] He spend most of his active life in Germany and emigrated to Israel in 1937. He described himself as "a chemist by learning, physicist by calling, and a mechanic by birth." He worked successfully as a photochemist and university teacher for photographic reproduction technology, as a designer of photo and film technology and as a company manager and founder.
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Early life and Education
Goldberg studied chemistry at the universities of Moscow, Königsberg (Russian: Kaliningrad), Leipzig and Göttingen. In 1906 he received his doctorate from Robert Luther in Leipzig with a photochemical work. After briefly working as an assistant to Adolf Miethe at the TH Charlottenburg, in 1907 he became head of the department for photomechanical duplication processes at the Royal Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Trade in Leipzig, where Goldberg was appointed professor in 1911. His research into the moiré effect, the development of the Goldberg wedge and the construction of densographs fell into the Leipzig period.
Professional career
During the First World War he participated as a civilian in the development of aerial cameras for German reconnaissance. In 1917 Goldberg became a board member of the International Camera Actiengesellschaft (ICA) in Dresden. Even after the merger of the companies ICA, Ernemann, Goerz and Contessa-Nettel in 1926 to form Zeiss Ikon, Goldberg remained on the board and temporary became their second chairman, succeeding Guido Mengel in 1927. Goldberg was primarily responsible for the technical development in the company, in particular the spring-driven film camera "Kinamo", which he already invented and developed while working at ICA. At Ica and Zeiss Ikon, Goldberg was involved in many more innovations and led the design of famous Contax rangefinder and other cameras. One of the famous designers in his group was Hubert Nerwin.
Scientific contributions
In addition to his work in industry, Goldberg hold a private lectureship and later an honorary professorship for "Photography, Cinematography and Reproduction Technology" at TH Dresden. He was co-organizer of the “VIII. International Congress for Scientific and Applied Photography” and ensured the general recognition of the German DIN standard for measuring film speed. Goldberg was best known for his extensive studies in sensitometry summarized in his book Der Aufbau des photographischen Bildes (1922) and the "Goldberg Condition" (Goldberg Bedingung), a design principle for high quality reproduction in two stage, negative-positive photographic processes better known in English as "the gamma rule."
Emigration and later life
On March 4, 1933, Goldberg was kidnapped by an Nazi/SA squad and held captive for three days. After the intervention of his board colleagues, he was released and fled Germany with his family to France. In Paris he worked for four years in subsidiary companies of the Zeiss Foundation before emigrating to Palestine in 1937. Here he founded a laboratory for the development and construction of scientific instruments from which the Israeli company Electro-Optical Industries (Rechovot) emerged. Goldberg retired in 1960. In 1968, he was awarded the Israel Prize in exact science.[2]
References and Links
- ↑ Jörg Zaun, Emanuel Goldberg, in: Sächsische Biografie, hrsg. vom Institut für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde e.V., online version
- ↑ Israel Prize Official Site - Recipients in 1968 (in Hebrew), archived: 2012-03-07
