August Joseph Ignaz Toepler (September 7, 1836, Brühl bei Bonn - March 6, 1912, Dresden) was a German physicist known for his experiments in electrostatics. In 1864 he applied Foucault's knife-edge test for telescope mirrors to the analysis of fluid flow and the shock wave. He named this new method schlieren photography, for which he is justifiably famous. He also developed the Toepler machine, an electrostatic influence machine, in 1865 for use in X-ray photography. Improved versions were produced by Wilhelm Holtz, Roger and J. Robert Voss.

Toepler's son Maximilien Toepler was also a physicist, and worked independently in the same field.

Toepler was also famous for inventing the Toepler Pump as seen in the bottom right hand picture

References

* P. Krehl and S. Engemann, "August Toepler - the first who visualized shock waves," 1995.