Alberti, Friedrich August von

(b. Stuttgart, Germany, 4 September 1795; d. Heilbronn, Germany, 12 September 1878)

geology, mining.

Alberti’s father, Karl Franz, was a colonel in Württemberg and a teacher at the well-known Karlsschule in Stuttgart; a member of the middle class, he was ennobled in 1807. His mother, Christiane Friederike, also came from the middle class; she had family connections with the princely court and was the aunt of the novelist and short-story writer Wilhelm Hauff.

In 1809 Alberti entered the Bergkadettenkorps in Stuttgart, in which he received instruction in general scientific subjects as well as special training in mineralogy, geology, and mining. In 1815 he went to the saltworks at Sulz; in 1818 he supervised drilling experiments near Jagstfeld; and in 1820 he was appointed inspector of the saltworks at Friedrichshall. The first proof of his abilities came in 1823, when he drilled a rock salt deposit near Schwenningen and established the saltworks at Wilhelmshall; he became manager in 1828. In his book Über die Gebürge des Königreiches Württemberg, in besonderer Beziehung auf Halurgie (1825) he also demonstrated his scientific abilities.

Alberti was appointed mining counselor in 1836. From 1852 to 1870 he was again manager of the saltworks at Friedrichshall. There, under his direction, between 1854 and 1859 the Friedrichshall shaft was bored, and the center of Württemberg’s salt production was shifted from Wilhelmshall to Friedrichshall. His most important technical improvement was the introduction of steam heating into salt processing. Alberti was considered one of the foremost saltmining engineers, but like other German mining officials of his era, he was not only a good manager with technical capabilities but also a scientist of significant achievement.

After Quenstedt, Alberti must be reckoned one of the founders of the geology of southwest Germany. His investigations of the Triassic period and its fossils were of fundamental significance. he coined the name Triassic for the oldest formations of the Mesozoic era and thoroughly investigated the three divisions—variegated sandstone, shell limestone, and Keuper sandstone—dividing them into groups characterized by petrographic and paleontologic features. In 1834 he published his most important results in Beiträge zu einer Monographie des Bunten Sandsteins, Muschelkalks und Keupers und der Verbindug dieser Gebilde zu einer Formation. He also 9investigated and described crystalline slate and the eruptive rocks, as well as their superimposed formations in the Black Forest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Alberti’s main writings are Über die Gebürge des Königreiches Württemberg, in besonderer Beziehung auf Halurgie (Stuttgart-Tübingen, 1825); Beiträge zu einer Monographie des Bunten Sandsteins, Muschelkalks und Keupers und der Verbindung dieser Gehilde zu einer Formation (Stuttgart-Tübingen, 1834); Halurgische Geologie, 2 vols. (Stuttgart-Tübingen, 1852); and Überblick über die Trias (Stuttgart, 1864).

II. Secondary Literature. Biographical notices are in Schnäbische Kronik (1878), 2165: and in W. Serlo, Männer des Berghaues (1937). The best recent summary is Erich Krenkel, in Neue deutsche Biographic, I (1953), 140–141.

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