Walter Porstmann
Walter Porstmann (1889-1959) was a German engineer, mathematician and standardization theorist. He was instrumental in the adoption of the DIN paper format standard for A4 and related sizes.
Life and education
Walter Porstmann was born on 8th March 1886 in Geyersdorf, Saxony.[1] He received a PhD from the University of Leipzig in 1920, with advisors Otto Weiner and Theodore des Coudres.[2] His dissertation was on measurement systems.[2]
Porstmann died on 24th June 1959 in Berlin.[1] He is buried in a Grave of Honour in the Lankwitz State Cemetery. [3]
Career
Early in his career Porstmann was an assistant to the retired chemist Wilhelm Ostwald who was influential in the establishment of scientific standardisation.[3] He was associated with the establishment of the Normenausschuß der deutschen Industrie, a forerunner of the German standards organisation DIN.[3]
Porstmann advocated many standardisation projects, including the universal use of a single lowercase typeface in German texts[4][3] and the standardisation of card catalogue sizes.[5] Notably he was instrumental in the adoption of the DIN 476 standard to define paper sizes.
Unreferenced facts in German wikipedia
In 1915 Porstmann worked as a technical writer and, after being drafted into World War I , worked as a meteorologist on the western front.
In 1917 his book Theory of Norms caught the attention of Waldemar Hellmich , the first managing director of the German Institute for Standardization (DIN).
He worked in the Hinz factory in Berlin-Mariendorf and passed the doctoral examination in the subjects functional theory and thermodynamics and meteorology.
In 1920, Porstmann became a member of the Standards Committee of German Industry , which was founded in 1917 and was the forerunner of the German Institute for Standardization .
On August 18, 1922, this published DIN 476 “Paper Formats”. Porstmann had combined the world format with the metric area measure: the DIN A0 format has an area of one square meter. He added the slightly larger B series for envelopes to the format .
In 1923, Porstmann became managing director of Fabriknorm GmbH , which manufactured the associated items from card index boxes to letter folders.
Walter Porstmann advocated lower -case letters in Germany, partly for economic reasons. He also devised a concept of a new, purely phonetic alphabet .
In 1944, Walter Porstmann was awarded the DIN ring of honour.
Publications (all in German)
- Normenlehre (1917)
- Aufbau und Zusammenschluss der Maßsysteme (Dissertation, 1918)
- Sprache und Schrift (1920)[4]
- Papierformate: Die Dinformate und ihre Einführung in die Praxis (1923)[6]
- Karteikunde: Das Handbuch d. Karteitechnik (1928)
- Flott und leserlich Anleitg zur Form d. Erwachsenenhandschrift (1935)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in Module:Citeq at line 53: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value)., Wikidata Q36578
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Walter Porstmann - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. Retrieved 2022-08-14.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Burial details for Walter Porstmann" (PDF). berlin.de. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-01-09. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 Porstmann, Walter (1920). Sprache und Schrift. Berlin: Verlag des Vereins Deutscher Ingenieure. Search this book on
- ↑ Krajewski, Markus (2011). Paper machines : about cards & catalogs, 1548-1929. Peter Krapp. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-29821-6. OCLC 768111302. Search this book on
- ↑ Porstmann, Walter (1923). Papierformate: Die Dinformate und ihre Einführung in die Praxis. Selbstverlag Dinorm. Search this book on
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