Søren Hjorth

Søren Hjorth, ( born October 13, 1801 in Vesterbygaard at Kalundborg in the west of Zealand (Denmark ); † August 28, 1870 in Copenhagen) was a Danish railway engineer and inventor. Even before he Werner von Siemens discovered the dynamo-electric principle and received in 1854 the first patent for a self-excited dynamo.

Life

Søren Hjorth was born on October 13, 1801 born on the farm Vesterbygaard at Kalundborg in the west of Zealand (Denmark), where his father was manager. Since his parents had intended for him a career in agriculture, he grew up without special education. Nevertheless, he managed to drop a law degree.

In 1821 he became the administrator on the estate Bonderup Korsør (West - Zealand ). Since this did not fill him, he joined in 1828 as a volunteer in the Treasury, where he was in 1836 secretary and clerk chamber (also in his later work as an engineer, he was mostly " Secretary Hjorth " called ). Since this activity does not fulfill him, he attended lectures at the Polytechnic by the way, especially with Prof. Ørsted on electricity and magnetism.

In 1839 he became manager of a piano factory, 1844 Technical Director of he founded railway company. In 1845 he married Vilhelmine Ancker, nee Hansen, who brought two children into the marriage; common children did not get the couple. In 1848 he had to give up the post of director for health reasons. The next few years he worked in England at its dynamo.

Since 1857, he held various activities as a representative of an English steel mill, as a translator and as a patent consultant. Since 1861, he received a pension for his services during the construction of the first Danish railway.

He died on 28 August 1870.

Services

Steam car

Throughout his life he was fascinated by mechanical problems. In 1832 he constructed a rotary steam engine that was built by the mechanic Schiødt and then bought by the King for the Polytechnic. In the same year he published the draft of a steam car that should be driven by that machine. A Bauzuschuss was rejected and the car probably never built.

A trip to England in 1834, during which he studied the local experiments with steam vehicles on rails and roads, encouraged him to new experiments. A small steam car proved itself on the flat streets of Copenhagen but failed because of the smallest surrounding hills.

Railway

1839 a trip convinced him to England, France and Belgium that steam vehicles would have to be on rails successful than on roads. In 1840 he put together with the accountant Schram before the detailed plan of a railway from Copenhagen to Roskilde. This idea was initially ridiculed, but after a tough struggle they received in 1843 the royal concession. 1844 shares were issued and within a month all drawn (mainly in Hamburg, the interest in Denmark was low ).

Det Sjællandske Jernbaneselskab was founded on July 2, 1844; Hjorth was technical director, Johan Christian Gustav Schramm General. On 27 June 1847, the route from Copenhagen to Roskilde was the first railway in Denmark was (apart from the route Kiel -Altona in the Danish -ruled Duchy of Holstein) opened. Only with a state guarantee was 1852, the extension will be built to Korsør.

Electricity

After the discovery of electromagnetism in 1820 ( generating a magnetic field by an electric current ) by Ørsted and electromagnetic induction ( generating an electrical voltage by changing a magnetic field ) in 1831 by Faraday, there have been many attempts to find practical applications for it. Also Hjorth designed since 1842 different electric motors. In 1848 he applied for a grant to have build such a machine according to his plans in England. At this time he had already realized that the magnetism of iron was increased in one piece when it was wrapped with a current-carrying wire, but only up to a saturation limit; his new machine should take advantage of this principle.

In its report, the professors Ørsted and Forchhammer doubted Although this observation ( the widely accepted design school curriculum ), but in favor of the proposal because the ingenious machine, even if they hardly appreciable power, will yet bring the inventor new insights for further inventions. Two versions of this engine, which in its former power steam engines of the same size was comparable, were built in England and created a great stir. 1849 a patent was granted.

However, the invention had the disadvantage that there was no power sources except low power batteries (wet cells). Hjorth therefore wanted to develop his engine a generator, which he called " dry battery ". On 1 May 1851 he formulated it in his notebook the dynamo-electric principle of self-excitation:

In the spring of 1854 he built in Copenhagen a 3 hp generator and it was in October that year the British Patent No. 2198-12 years before Werner von Siemens.

Failed plans

Fascinated by the principle of self-excitation, in which a small initial magnetism generates a current, which then still further enhanced magnetism, he said, the combination generator - motor would have starting from a small start-up energy produce more and more energy. That is such a perpetuum mobile impossible, was formulated only in 1847 on the conservation of energy and not yet widely accepted, even among scientists.

For years he tried in vain to raise money for the construction of larger and more sophisticated machines constructed to still fulfill his dream of perpetual motion.