Adam Tomcsanyi

* Kamánfalva, December 4, 1755 – † Pest, July 24, 1831 / physicist, engineer, university professor ; ; He completed his secondary school studies in Nyitra, Selmecbánya and Nagykároly. From 1778 he studied at the University of Buda and at the Institutum Geometricum and obtained his doctorate in humanities and then his engineering degree in 1787. In 1790 he was an assistant professor at the university, between 1791–1798 he was a professor of physics and agriculture at the Oradea and Bratislava Commercial Academy, and from 1801 until his death he was a professor of physics and mechanics at the University of Pest. He also held the position of rector in 1823–1824. He was the author of the first Hungarian monograph on electricity. In this work, he also wrote about electrochemistry and the medical application of electricity. In 1802, he and several others published a plan for the establishment of a natural science and medical society (Plan zu einer ungarischen Gesellschaft für Naturkunde und Medizin). In 1814, he published a paper on the 1810 Mór earthquake together with Pál Kitaibel. They also published a map showing the distribution of the effects caused by the earthquake. This was probably the first isoseismic map in the world. In a three-volume work, illustrated with 11 plates, he summarized the most important physical, astronomical and meteorological knowledge. ; ; His main works: ; Dissertatio de theoria phaenomenorum electricitatis galvanianae, 1809, ; Institutiones physicae quas compendio dedit… I-III., 1820–1821.