Georg Duffing

Georg Duffing was a German engineer and inventor, born in Waldshut in 1861, who is remembered for his mathematical treatment of forced vibrations. He studied mathematics, engineering and mechanical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, then worked at Cologne-Deutz AG on a gas engine that was successfully presented in 1905, and spent time at Westinghouse Electric in the United States in 1910. From 1913 he worked in Berlin as an independent inventor and vibration researcher. His 1918 work on forced oscillations with a changing natural frequency produced what is now called the Duffing equation, a standard model of nonlinear vibration that became popular in chaos theory from the 1970s. Later he led the development laboratory of a lubricating oil company in Hamburg and published on friction and viscosity measurement, and he held patents in Germany and the United States.