Wilhelm Eduard Weber (24.10.1804-23.06.1891) was a German physicist and a corresponding member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences (1834). He was born in Wittenberg. He graduated from the university in Halle (1826). He was professor at the universities of Halle (1828-31), Göttingen (1831-37 and from 1849) and Leipzig (1843-49).
His main research concerned electromagnetism. Together with C. Gauss he built in 1833 the first electromagnetic telegraph in Germany. He developed a theory of electrodynamic phenomena and established the law of the interaction of moving charges, and he put forward the idea of an ultralight particle (1848). In 1846 he pointed out the connection of the current with the density of electric charges and the speed of their ordered motion. Together with R. Kohlrausch he determined in 1856 the speed of light from the ratio of the charge of a capacitor in electrostatic and in magnetic units. He was the author of a theory of elementary magnets—magnetic dipoles (1854) and of the hypothesis of the discreteness of electric charge (1848). He constructed the first electronic model of the atom, giving it a planetary structure (1871).
His research was also in the fields of acoustics, heat, molecular physics and terrestrial magnetism. Together with his brother E. Weber he carried out an experimental study of waves in water and in air. He observed the interference of sound (1826) and put forward the idea of recording sound (1830). He discovered (1835) the elastic aftereffect. He invented a number of physical instruments, in particular the electrodynamometer (1848).