Schuh’s Annotated Bio-Bibliography


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WIIK, Fredrik Johan.

(1839 – 1909)

(Born: Helsingfors, Finland, 16 December 1839; Died: Helsingfors, Finland, 1909) Finnish mineralogist, petrologist and structural geologist.

Wiik was educated at the University of Helsingfors, receiving his doctorate in 1865. In 1877, he was appointed to the chair of mineralogy and geology at the University of Helsingfors. He held the post for 20 years, retiring due to ill health. Member of the Finnish Academy of Science. Wiik died alone, on a geological excursion, with hammer in hand.

Biographical references: Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae: 40 (1911), 1-19 [by W. Ramsay]. Finsk Biografisk Handbok: 2, cols. 2391-2. Hausen, History of Mineralogy in Finland, 1968: 24-6 & 43-8, portrait (p. 16a). Poggendorff: 3, 1444, 4, 1635-6 & 5, 1371. Renvall, Finlands Universitet, 1891. Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 3, 2425. SBA: Scandinavian Biographical Archive: B-368, 208-219. WBI.

1. Swedish, 1865 [Dissertation].
Bidrag | till | Helsingforstraktens mineralogi och geognosi. | Akademisk afhandling, | hvilken, | med den vidtberömda Filosofiska Fakultetens | vid Kejserliga Alexanders-Universitetet i Finland tillstånd, | under inseende af | D:r Adolf Edvard Arppe, | Professor i Kemin, Universitetets n.v. Rektor, | till offentlig granskning framställes | af | Fredrik Johan Wiik, | Filos. Mag. | uti hist.-filol. auditorium den 4 febr. 1865 | p.v.t.f.m. | [ornate rule] | Helsingfors, | J. C. Frenckell & Son, 1865.

8°: π1 1-28 34 [4]1; 22l.; [2], 42 p.

Contents: [2 pgs], Title page, verso blank.; [1]-42, Text.

Rare. Chemical investigations on the minerals appearing in the vicinity of Helsingfors. Most of these minerals are rock-forming, of more exotic species the paper reports on chrysoberyll. \JKjellman

Bibliographical references: NUC. SWIM.

2. Swedish, 1881.
Mineral-Karakteristik. | en handledning vid bestämmandet | af | Mineralier och Bergarter | af | D:r F.J. Wiik. | Professor i mineralogi och geologi. | [rule] | Med en lithogr. planche. | [ornate rule] | Helingfors, | Finska Litteratursällskapets tryckeri, 1881.

8°: π4 [1]-138 145; 113l.; [2], [i]-vi, [1]-217, [1] p., one plate (showing crystal drawings).

Contents: [2 pgs], Title page, verso blank.; [i]-iv, Forword.; [v]-vi, Contents.; [1]-208, Text.; [209]-217, Mineral index.; [1 pg], Errata.

Rare. An early and original manual of mineral identification, in which the minerals are identified according to three different "mineral systems," a crystallographic, a physical and a chemical. The author presents here his own "shortened modification" of Millers crystallographic notations. For example, (111) is written abc, (123) becomes ab2c3 and (110) ab. Of special interest is the part of the book (pp. 80-90) where the author presents his original dynamic idea of matter, i. e. forces or centra of forces constitutes the smallest part of the material world. Elements are complex combinations of multiples of the atomic weights of the three fundamental elements hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, whose elementary forces (dynamider) are positive (passive), neutral and negative (active) respectively. Numbers that reappear in the element-series are for example 6 and 8, and these can be referred to the simple crystal forms the octahedron and the cube. Reversedly, the morphologies of crystalline substances give, according to Wiik , clues to the relative combination of the three elementary forces in the molecules. In this respect mineralogy serves an important purpose as, according to the author, the study of crystalforms gives direct evidence to the fundamental aspects of the physical world. \JKjellman

Bibliographical references: Dana's 7th (Bibliography): 83. Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar: 71 (1882), 46-52 [review by H. Sjögren]. Poggendorff: 3, 1444, 4, 1635-6 & 5, ???. Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 3, 2425.

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