Talk:Alexander von Humboldt

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 January 2021 and 27 April 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Brennan24. Peer reviewers: Jvstinjvnes, AFS4267.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 17:05, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Terick34.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 13:48, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Category "LGBT Christian"? - Innacurate[edit]

I wonder what was this category doing in the article.

On the one hand, the article does not have any factual proof, quote, or direct historical statement, to afirm that Humbolt was indeed homosexual. In the own words of the author of Colonialism and Homosexuality, Robert F. Aldrich, whether Humboldt was homosexual or not, "a definite answer is impossible." They are only speculations, and a pair of unproven spoken accounts are not enoough for a serious article, I believe. I think there is not sufficient evidence to affirm that Humboldt was gay, so I remove the category. Only with the evidence available in this article, he would be better classified among the category of the "suspected of".

On the other hand, the question of whether he was a Christian, I've just researched and finished the section of his religion, showing what I found. In view of the evidence, I would say that what he wrote shows his respect for Christianity and other religions. We might speculate and say he might have simpathized with Liberal Christianity/Unitarianism/Deism, but I couldn't find any place in which he stated the belief in Christ as Savior or Messiah, the basic tennet of all Christians. So there is neither sufficient evidence to affirm that Humboldt was a Christian. If there is further evidence, I would love to know it. But only with the evidence available in this article, he would be better classified among the category of theists. --Goose friend (talk) 06:16, 6 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Of course you're right. But he was homosexual. Anyway not heterosexual. Frimoussou (talk) 02:50, 12 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

any proof other than hersay?18:04, 3 November 2017 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.192.147.102 (talk)

Air[edit]

Fun fact. Just sharing.
"...a Berlin paper relates how AvH once took advantage of the exemption from duty (taxes) of the covering of articles free from duty, formerly if not now the rile in France. In the year 1805, he and Guy Lussac were in Partis engaged in their experiments on the composition of air. The two scientists found themselves in need of a large number of glass tubes. This article was exceedingly dear in France at the time, and the rate of impost upon imported glass tubes was something alarming. Humblodt sent an order to Germany for the needed articles, and gave directions that the manufacturer should seal up the tubes at both ends and put a label upon each tube with the words "Deutche Luft" (German air). The air of Germany was an article upon which there was no duty, and the tubes were passed by the customs officers without any demand, and arrived free of duty in the hands of the two experimenters"
Scientific American, 11-Feb-1882, pp 85, https://books.google.com/books?id=zoE9AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=snippet&q=carbonic%20oxide&f=false
SloppyTots (talk) 00:35, 3 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Conflicting info[edit]

There is an internal contradiction in this article. In one place, his journey in Russia is described as taking 25 weeks, a few paragraphs later it is described as taking 8 months. Both can't be true-- 25 weeks is a little less than 6 months-- 8 months is 35 weeks.

The two accounts agree on the distance travelled though-- one says 15,472 km, and the other 15,500 km. So, they are obviously both referring to the same journey. I don't think the difference in the two distances is of any importance-- the second is simply rounded, whcih seems completely acceptable, but the differences in duration seems clearly wrong, but I have no idea which one is correct. DlronW (talk) 21:28, 20 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Both are correct ! It depends on what you may call "Russian journey". Humboldt started in Berlin on 12 April 1829, 11 p.m. and arrived at Saint Petersburg on 1 May 1829. He left the capital starting his actual expedition on 20 May 1829, 11 a.m., and returned in Saint Petersburg on 13 November 3 p.m. This gives precisely 25 weeks and 2 days, or about 6 months. Humboldt arrived in Berlin on 28 December 1829 at 11 p.m., so the whole journey lasted 32 weeks and 6 days (minus 1 hour), that's about 8 and a half month. The dates are from the publication:

Biermann, Kurt; Jahn, Ilse; Lange, Fritz G. (1983). Alexander von Humboldt. Chronologische Übersicht über wichtige Daten seines Lebens [Chronological table on important data of his life]. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.

You may get the dates in internet with this link: [1]. --Dioskorides (talk) 22:14, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]