Quick Facts
Biography
Johann August Natterer (19 October 1821 – 25 December 1900) was an Austrian physician and chemist.
Born in Vienna, he was a nephew to naturalist Johann Natterer (1787-1843). In 1847, he obtained his medical doctorate from the University of Vienna, later practicing medicine in Wien-Leopoldstadt.
Along with his brother Josef Natterer (1819-1862), he is remembered for pioneer experiments in the field of photography. In 1841, using a Voigtländer camera on daguerreotype plates that were prepared according to a chemical process developed by Franz Kratochwila, they were able to increase the sensitivity five-fold, and reportedly achieved exposure times as low as 5 to 6 seconds in clear weather.
In the mid-1840s, using a compressed air chamber pump invented by J. Schembor (1777-1851), he was the first scientist to produce liquid carbonic acid in significant quantities. His name is associated with a sealed and constant volume vessel known as a "Natterer's tube".