The German mathematician and engineer Adolf Ferdinand Wenceslaus Brix (1798-1870) worked as a civil engineer in various positions. He was director of the Royal Prussian Normal Calibration Commission, a member of the technical deputation for trade in the Ministry of Trade and the technical building deputation, and a teacher of applied mathematics at the Berlin Institute of Trade. At the Berlin Building Academy he was a teacher of higher analysis and applied mathematics. In 1870, he developed a unit of measurement named after him for relative density in a liquid (soluble dry matter) and thus the sugar content. Indirectly, this gives an objective value of the degree of ripeness of a fruit. It is mainly used in the fruit industry, but in English-speaking countries it is also used to determine the must weight in grapes or grape must. Other units of measurement are Babo, Balling, Baumé and Oechsle.
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