Kristian Birkeland
A brilliant and tireless Norwegian physicist who solved the ancient mystery of the Northern Lights and turned air into fertilizer to fund his quest.
1867–1917 (age 50)·Norwegian scientist·Birthday: December 13·The Gilded Age
Biography
Kristian Birkeland was a man of cosmic curiosity and practical genius, driven to understand the spectacular auroras that danced over his native Norway. At a time when most scientists believed the phenomenon was an atmospheric reflection of ice crystals, he proposed a radical idea: that particles from the sun, guided by Earth's magnetic field, caused the lights. To prove it, he conducted daring expeditions to Arctic observatories and created a miniature version of Earth in his lab—the 'terrella'—simulating the aurora in a vacuum chamber. His research was chronically underfunded, so he applied his mind to industry. With Sam Eyde, he invented a process to create fertilizer by using powerful electric arcs to fix nitrogen from the air, a breakthrough that founded the Norwegian hydroelectric industry. Nominated for the Nobel Prize seven times, Birkeland's restless spirit and willingness to bridge theoretical physics and industrial invention left a legacy that lights up both the sky and the fields.
The Gilded Age
1860–1882
Born during or after the Civil War, they built industrial America — the railroads, the steel mills, the first skyscrapers. An era of massive wealth, massive inequality, and the belief that the future belonged to whoever could build it fastest.
Kristian was born in 1867, placing them squarely in The Gilded Age. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Kristian Was Born
The biggest hits of 1867
Kristian's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1867Born
President: Andrew Johnson
1872Started school
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1880Became a teenager
Edison patents the incandescent light bulb
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1883Could drive
President: Chester A. Arthur
1885Could vote
Karl Benz builds the first gasoline-powered automobile
President: Grover Cleveland
1888Turned 21
President: Grover Cleveland
1897Turned 30
President: William McKinley
1907Turned 40
Financial panic grips Wall Street
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1917Turned 50
Russian Revolution overthrows the tsar; US enters WWI
President: Woodrow Wilson
Key Achievements
- Developed the first scientifically sound theory explaining the aurora borealis as caused by charged particles from the sun.
- Co-invented the Birkeland–Eyde process, the first industrial method for fixing atmospheric nitrogen to produce fertilizer.
- Constructed the 'terrella', a pioneering experimental device that modeled cosmic plasma phenomena in the laboratory.
- Was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics or Chemistry seven times between 1905 and 1917.
Did You Know?
He invented an electromagnetic cannon, a precursor to the coilgun, partly to fund his aurora research.
His face appears on the Norwegian 200-krone banknote.
He suffered from severe insomnia and often worked through the night, taking sleeping pills during the day.
He died under mysterious circumstances in a Tokyo hotel room, possibly from a barbiturate overdose.
““It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds.””
