Aurel Stodola

Aurel Stodola Boreslav (* May 10, 1859 Liptovsky Mikulas Svätý, county Liptau in today's Slovakia, † December 25, 1942 in Zurich ) was an engineer, who significantly advanced the theoretical and practical development of turbines. Most of this work he did as a professor of mechanical engineering and machine design at the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich.

Life and work

Aurel Stodola (today Slovakia) born in 1859 in the Empire of Austria belonging to the Kingdom of Hungary. From 1877 he studied mechanical engineering, first at the Polytechnic School in Budapest, then from 1878 at the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich, where he received a diploma with honors in 1881. After studying Stodola helped initially in the reconstruction of the destroyed by a fire leather factory of his father. Subsequently he was employed from 1884 to 1892 in the Engineering Plant Ruston in Prague.

In March 1892 Stodola was then appointed as a professor of mechanical engineering and machine design to the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. Here he quickly built its worldwide reputation as an outstanding expert in the field of turbomachines and heat engines. He was there as a theorist as well as appreciated as a practitioner and as a teacher. At the Polytechnic, he set up the most modern machines laboratory in Europe and worked closely with local industry ( Escher Wyss & Cie.. , Brown, Boveri & Cie. , ...) Together. He sometimes also formulated the Stodola - law called tapered law concerning performance of turbines. Stodolas advice contributed significantly to that Heinrich Zoelly 1903 his first multi-stage impulse turbine and that Hans Holzwarth from 1905 was able to build the first production-ready gas turbine. 1903 Stodola first published his textbook " The steam turbines and their prospects as a heat engine and the gas turbine ", in short: "Steam and Gas Turbines ", which was numerous editions and translated into many languages, the standard work of thermal turbomachinery.

But his many interests Stodola worked not only in the field of turbines. So Stodola developed example a prosthetic hand in collaboration with Ferdinand Sauerbruch. As a contribution to the art - discussion, he wrote the book " Thoughts on a philosophy from the standpoint of the engineer " ( Springer -Verlag, 1931). Furthermore, he studied with philosophical and economic issues and corresponded with contemporaries such as Albert Einstein and Albert Schweitzer.

After his retirement in 1929 he continued to work in research and industry. In 1942, he died in Zurich.

Honors

Stodola are - some alive, some posthumously - been bestowed numerous honors and awards. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hannover (1905 ), the University of Brno and the University of Prague ( 1929). He was adviser to the French Académie des Sciences ( Academy of Sciences). To him, the Grashof Commemorative Medal of the Association of German Engineers in 1908 and awarded in old age finally 1941, the James Watt Medal.

Albert Einstein said of him:

" If he was born into the Renaissance, he would have become a great painter or sculptor. Because the strongest instinct of his personality is imagination and creative urge. "