Karl Baedeker (scientist) Karl Baedeker (scientist) Karl Wilhelm Sali Baedeker (3 February 1877 – 6 August 1914) was a German physicist, and a professor at the University of Jena. He was the grandson of Karl Baedeker, the founder of the eponymous travel guide publishing house, and the son of Fritz Baedeker (1844 - 1925), who ran the same company from 1869 until his death in 1925 (see Baedeker). One of his scientific discoveries was that the resistivity of cuprous iodide (CuI) depended on its stoichiometry. Thin films of the material became much more conductive when exposed to iodine vapor; the effect was reversible.
Karl Baedeker of the House of Baedeker invariably recount anecdotes about its founder and these are not without substance. He was renowned for his hard and careful work, his high standards, both personal and professional, and for being absolutely incorruptible. Baedeker generally went around conducting his research incognito. In an article entitled "The Baedeker Guide Books" published in the November 1989 issue (68) of the now defunct "Book and Magazine Collector", Michael Wild, the Baedeker historian and author of "Baedekeriana: An Anthology" wrote: On September 22, 1975, The New Yorker magazine ran a 38-page profile of the "House of Baedeker". Its author,