WEYR, Eduard

As his older brother Emil, W. came in contact with math in German secondary modern school in Prague, where his father František W. (* 1820) taught. Although he could not complete schooling at this school for health reasons, he due to his extraordinary talent attended mathematics lectures at Prague Polytechnic Institute as a fifteen year old boy. In 1868 he has sent two discussions for publication in "Sitzungsberichte” gazette to the Academy of Sciences in Vienna. One discussion was published – the debate on the extension of the Desargues' theorem. In 1868/69 he finally began with his regular studies at the Technical University of Prague. During the study further articles were published in 'Sitzungsberichte' of the Vienna Academy, in "Crelle's-Journal" and the "Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik". When in 1871 the first volume of "Czech mathematical society Report" (První zpráva Jednotty českých mathematiků) was released, W.'s article on the formation of projective plane was also included. That same year the newspaper "Živa" published his and his brother Emil → W.’s first part of the first Czech textbook on the projective geometry „Základové vyšší geometrie“(Foundations of higher geometry). After serving in the Army, he, thanks to a scholarship, obtained experience abroad. Stop at Alfred Clebsch in Göttingen ended tragically, as he only three weeks after (on 7th November 1872) died as a result of diphtheria. He also met Felix Klein in Göttingen, but he rejected his invitation in Erlangen and instead finished his dissertation on spatial algebraic curves in Göttigen. Living in Göttingen W. also exploited for the study of theories of elliptic functions under J. A. Serret and Charles Hermit. For a longer period he remained in contact with Hermit and they also published several works together. After returning to Prague, he worked at the Prague Polytechnic, refusing a professorship offered at the new University of Zagreb. After his brother Emil → W. went to Vienna, Prague Technical University habilitated him as associate professor in 1876 and as full professor in 1881. In 1876 W. also habilitated at the Prague University. In 1878 he rejected a professorship offer in Innsbruck and Tschernowzy and likewise declined an invitation to Vienna in 1890. He left the post of Assistant Professor at Prague University to the talented mathematician Ludvik Kraus. In 1885/86 he travelled to Berlin and took lectures of Karl Weierstrass and Leopold Kronecker. On 1st October 1903 he finally received an invitation for a professorship at University of Prague but died of heart failure soon after. From 1875 on he worked as a Permanent Secretary of the Czech Mathematicians Association and from 1882 on as a newspaper editor of the "Časopis pro pěstování mathematiky a fysiky" (Journal for cultivation of mathematics and physics).
W.’s mathematical work focuses on geometry and algebra, as well as mathematical analysis. To be able to write a textbook on the foundations of projective geometry he in 1898 returned to the articles (First level of the basis on projective geometry) that he published in the 1871 in the newspaper "Živa". His main interest, however, was the theory of curves and planes, on which he wrote "The plane theory", published in 1891. His algebraic work focused on linear algebra problems. He was also interested in the matrix theory, which arose only after the work of Arthur Cayley in 1858. W. summarized his findings in "About the theory of bilinear forms" (1889). Shortly before his death his textbook was published "differential calculus" (1902) that triggered the controversy between him and J. V. Pexider.