Rose

Rose, born at Berlin on the 18th of March 1798, began his career as a mining engineer, but soon turned his attention to theoretical studies. A pupil of Berzelius like his brother, he graduated in 1820 at Berlin University where he became successively Privatdozent (1823), extraordinary professor of mineralogy (1826) and ordinary professor (1839). In 1856 he succeeded to the directorship of the Royal Mineralogical Museum at Berlin, and he helped to found the German Geological Society, of which he was president from 1863 until the end of his life. He made many journeys in different parts of Europe for the sake of mineralogical study, and in 1829 with A. von Humboldt and C. G. Ehrenberg (1795-1876), professor of medicine at Berlin, took part in an expedition to the Ural and Altai mountains and the Caspian Sea, which yielded information of primary importance concerning the mineralogy of the Russian Empire. His work covered every branch of mineralogy, including crystallography and the artificial formation of minerals. The science of petrography, according to Gerhard vom Rath, originated with him. He was the first in his own country to use the reflecting goniometer for the measurement of the angles of crystals, and to teach the method of studying rocks by means of microscopic sections. He also devoted special attention to meteorites and to the problem presented by the different structure of the stony matter in them and in the crust of the earth, and just before his death, which took place at Berlin on the 15th of July 1873, he was engaged in investigating the formation of the diamond. In addition to many scientific memoirs he published Elemente der Krystallographie (1830); Mineralogischgeognostische Reise nach dem Ural, dem Altai and dem Kaspische Meere (1837) vol. i.; (1842) vol. ii.; Das Krystallo-chemische Mineralsystem (1852); and Beschreibung and Eintheilung der Meteoriten  (1863).