Josef Ressel
Joseph Ludwig Franz Ressel ( Czech Josef František Ressel Ludvik, born June 29, 1793 in Chrudim (Bohemia ); † October 9, 1857 in Ljubljana ) was an Austrian- Bohemian forest officer and inventor.
Ressel was one of the inventors of the ship propeller ( with John Ericsson and Francis Pettit Smith, Robert Fulton and David Bushnell had already propeller on their submarines ), namely the one who brought him to technical maturity. Even then, this was also known as Propeller, because he had similarity to the Archimedean screw.
Life and work
Training and Study
Josef Ressel, son of resident originating from the District Friedland, in Chrudim Czech German kk Mauteinnehmers Hermann Anton Ressel (* 1762) and his Czech wife Marie Anna Konvičková, attended from 1806 high school in Linz, Upper Austria, and was a pupil from 1809 to 1811 the country's artillery school in Budweis. His weak physical constitution because he was not using them as a soldier. From 1812 to 1814 he studied at the (then teaching technical subjects ) University of Vienna, among other mechanics, hydraulics and civil architecture. Already in his time in Vienna, in 1812, he designed a propeller as a drive way for ships. Since Ressel impoverished parents in the wake of the Napoleonic turmoil of war, he was able to further deepen its interests, the new property opened in November 1815 kk no longer attend Polytechnic Institute. He applied for a scholarship to the Academy of Forestry Mariabrunn, but was rejected as " too weak". A native of Chrudim compatriot Ressel was a body servant to Emperor Franz I and this presented a personality marked by Ressel lifelike sketch of the Battle of Leipzig. The Emperor was so impressed by the work that he was a scholarship from his private purse paid its author - Ressel and graduated in 1817 with honors from.
Ressel received after his training up a post as a district forester in Pletriach (Slovenian Pleterje ) in Carniola. He was an advocate of forest sustainability principle and gave suggestions for the Karst forestation. After the Congress of Vienna (1814 /15), which had also come to Trieste Venice under Austrian rule, was the Empire of Austria the kk Navy built in the Mediterranean. It was created as a wood supplier for the imperial shipyards large forests. These forests were supervised by the Austrian forest officials and maintained, including Josef Ressel. In 1821 he was appointed director of the imperial royal navy forest -coast domain inspection in Trieste. In his spare time he continued to work on his ship propeller. Due to the displacement in the port city of Trieste opened up for Ressel also the opportunity to continue his model tests in practice. However, he met with shipowners and shipowners to widespread opposition, who wanted to put on sail or paddle wheel as a drive.
Successful attempts ...
The two Italian merchants Julian and Tossitti leaving Ressel, against the promise to take on the cost of producing the propeller itself, a unrigged Bark. He was at the mechanic Hermann build a propeller with a diameter of half a meter. The practical experiments with this driven by a hand crank bolt were successful. On February 11, 1827 in Austria Ressel received a patent ( privilege ) to
His efforts to finance the patent failed, as did the attempt by the establishment of an Austrian Screw Steamship Company.
Disappointed, Ressel went back to his forest office. In April 1829 he took a trip to Paris and settled there again build a propeller, which he successfully presented to an enthusiastic audience. Since it Ressel had but failed with the French company exporting to conclude a contract for the use of the screw, seized his other invention, without letting him take advantage of success with.
In Austria it was on Ressel's invention of the Parisian successes again carefully. In Trieste, from a six hp ( 4.4 kW) steam engine and driven by a Ressel bolt with 1.58 m diameter steamship " Civetta " in 1829 in the shipyard of Odorico Panfilli built. The first test run on July 1 of that year, was initially successful at a speed of six knots (11 km / h), then had to be abandoned, however, after the rupture of a soft-solder steam pipe. After failing the critics Ressel reached the Chief of Police of Trieste, a ban on the repair of the machine as well as prohibiting the continuation of the experiments with the " Civetta ". Although Ressel processed immediately against the ban, but the process dragged on for years, and the court costs ruined him. In addition, he was transferred from Trieste to a new service in the interior ( Motovun in Istria).
Without recognition ...
As in 1840, the British screw steamer " Archimedes " came to Trieste, Ressel again traveled to the city. He found in the built by Francis Pettit Smith in 1838 ship his ideas and concepts implemented without having achieved even due recognition. Embittered Ressel kicked off for home.
Smith had but indeed essential role in the introduction and dissemination of the propeller in the deep sea shipping was not its inventor. Therefore, the British government in 1852 wrote a prize of 20,000 pounds sterling for the "true inventor of the propeller " from which then, however, his invention had to prove. Ressel then sent all his documents to the British Admiralty in London, but never received a reply. Was provided upon request through the diplomatic channel that the dossier was "lost" were. The price was eventually divided among five Britons. [Note 1]
Disappointed, Josef Ressel withdrew completely stayed forester - he described himself as "Ranger without forest " - and died during a business trip to Ljubljana from malaria (also: Typhus ) [Note. 2] Years later learned Ressel and his invention of a posthumous appreciation. Today he is regarded as the most famous Austrian- Bohemian Forstmann.
The Czech writer Zdeněk Pluhař Ressel continued with the novel " The bronze spiral" (1957), a literary monument. In Vienna, the scale at Karlsplatz Resselpark was named before the main building of the Technical University after him where his honor in 1863 ( that which has been determined for Trieste ), a monument to his memory. In the 14th district of Vienna, near the former Academy of Forestry (now the Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape, BFW) Josef- Ressel street was named after him and in the former forestry Botanical Garden of Academy of Forestry (now the experimental garden Mariabrunn the BFW ) reminds a monument to his time as Mary Brunner forestry pupil. In 1862 the Resselgasse was named after him in Wieden ( 4th District ). In the Slovenian coastal town of Piran an alley named after him, as is the square in front of the gate of Motovun. The school in Chrudim, the birthplace Ressel ( in today's Czech Republic), bears the name Josef Ressel. Furthermore, in the square in front of the history museum of his native town is a larger than life bronze statue on a granite pedestal. This monument was created from Ladislav Šaloun in 1924. The Museo del Mare ( Sea Museum ) in Trieste, the important exhibits from the former Marine Museum of the Imperial and Royal Seearsenals has taken over from Pola / Pula, dedicates a space to the work Josef Ressel and his invention of the ship's propeller.
Its shipbuilding technical achievements have also been recognized in the GDR. So wore the operating Vocational School (BBS ) of VEB Roßlauer shipyard in Roßlau on the River Elbe in Saxony -Anhalt the name Josef Ressel.
The portrait Ressel can be seen on the 500 Schilling banknote from 1966. On the back is an illustration of the power of a Ressel screw steamship " Civetta ".
Other inventions
Similar to the propeller developed Ressel windmills with a vertical shaft. This should cause the wind turbine worked regardless of the wind direction. He wanted to irrigate the plains in Egypt on the Nile.
Less well known is that he developed a pneumatic tube system, which he began in 1827 and 1847 brought to maturity. In the field of chemistry, he invented a novel method of soap making and a heating means for steam engines. Also, the ball bearing goes back to his designs.