Any tourist passing through Duino will surely recall the castle overlooking the Gulf of Trieste, its peaceful and lush gardens, or the legend of the White Dame, whose veil is embossed in the limestone cliffs above the old castle, not to mention the light at sunset in “porto” – Duino’s tiny marina.
On the other hand, if such a tourist were a mathematician or a physicist you might find him wandering around Duino in search of a plaque in memory of a certain Ludwig Boltzmann. In that case I would definitely not like to be in the shoes of some poor local whom that curious tourist might stop to ask for directions. So perhaps you may find it useful if I share with you what I know about Professor Boltzmann.
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann was born in Vienna on on Mardi Gras, on February 20th 1844 and he was one of the greatest theoretical physicists of all time. His fame is due to his pioneering research work on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics (his basic equation of kinetic gas theory and the second principle of thermodynamics) as well as the atomic hypothesis of matter. He also made important contributions in mechanics, electromagnetism, mathematics and philosophy.
Boltzmann was an extraordinary mathematician, a philosopher, a great teacher (he had an outstanding memory), he was a brilliant conversationalist as well as an excellent pianist with a great passion for Beethoven. And yet he was a controversial figure and his innovative ideas (on atomism and irreversibility in particular) were often misunderstood and ostracized. In particular, his love of extreme mathematics earned him the by-name of “algebraic terrorist”.
At sixty-two, suffering from incumbent blindness and other ailments, in the process of giving in to depression after the loss of his eldest son, his pride and self-esteem took a great toll owing to the criticism of many fellow scientists. Boltzmann then sought refuge and peace of mind in the small village of Duino, on the border of the Astro-Hungarian Empire.
Neither the sunsets non the beautiful gulf nor Rilke’s verses helped him fend off the terrible depression that was devouring his soul and on a bleak day towards the end of the summer, on September 5th 1906 Boltzmann took his life by hanging himself from the window of his hotel room – formerly known as Hotel Ples now the one of the buildings of the United World College, opposite the Carabinieri station.
It is far from easy to fathom the tragedy and greatness of Ludwig Boltzmann’s scientific work without delving into twentieth-century Europe, one of the most eventful times in the history of science. The great advances in the realms of mechanics and astronomy had provided a unified interpretation of nature but many phenomena could still not be explained by the scientific method, with wizards and alchemists hovering around their mysteries: heat, light, electricity, magnetism, the processes of life itself.
Boltzmann’s works and discoveries are much more than mere formulas in dusty books: the applications of the equation that bears his name are manifold, from uses in thermodynamics to astrophysics, from the study of gaseous and human bodies, through pollution analysis and the design of nuclear reactors, all the way to combustion chambers and semiconductors and beyond.
Boltzmann is now rememberd mostly owing to the second principle of thermodynamics, the fundamental equation on the kinetic theory of gas (transcribed as an epitaph on his grave in the cemetery in Vienna), thanks to a plaque on the building in Duino where he took his own life and in connection with a lunar crater that was named after him. The latter piece of news might be interesting for the occasional tourist inquiring about Boltzmann, particularly if he were small, green and with almond-shaped eyes …
