Poul la Cour

Poul la Cour ( born April 13, 1846 the estate Skjärso at Edeltoft, Jutland, † April 24, 1908 in Askov, spelling and also Paul La Cour or LaCour ) was a Danish meteorologist and one of the most important pioneer of modern wind turbines.

Life

Poul la Cour spent his childhood in Jutland, where his father was a farmer technically gifted. He initially wanted to become a priest, he failed because of his academic performance, however, a career in science one. He studied in Copenhagen and Buys- Ballot in Utrecht.

In 1869, he completed his training as a meteorologist, undertook 1871-1872 meteorological study trips to Wales and Messina, thereby visited the meteorological stations in Naples, Rome, Florence and Trieste and in 1872 deputy director of the Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen. One of his tasks was the stationing of meteorological stations in the country. One problem was the fastest communication with the measuring stations, which took place on telegraph. La Cour dealt with in the wake of telegraphy and invented ( the same time as Lord Rayleigh ) is a method by which it was possible that not only one participant was able to send a telegraph line, but also up to a hundred. Here he was in competition with Thomas Edison and was probably dubbed as the Danish Edison.

Through his numerous inventions he neglected his work at the Meteorological Institute and led his family through the costs of his research to the brink of financial ruin.

The director of the Folk High School in Askov, Ludwig Schroeder, la Cour asked to teach mathematics and physics at his university. La Cours then wife Hulda Barfod 1867 was himself been a student at the community college in Askov. She was glad that a change in the family living conditions in prospect and supported the change in his life.

Thus, la Cour 1878 teacher at the community college in Askov, a small town between Kolding and Esbjerg about 3 km north of the former Prussian border. The combination of the scientific researcher and inventor spirit la Cours with the social component of the community college expressed later in support of the concerns of the rural population through his research.

Currently Cours la the big cities were already electrified, while there was virtually no access to electricity in rural areas. His main concern was to enable the rural population that access.

He estimated the electricity as a one of the most promising techniques that simplify the work and could, for example, to learn, prolong life into the long, dark winter nights into it.

Therefore, he conducted research on improving the efficiency of windmills and mind to use it for the conversion of wind energy into electrical energy.

In 1891 he was given permission to build the first wind turbine on the school grounds of Askov. She served as a prototype for systems for rural electrification. Here conventional windmills were used, although la Cour now knew that there were better cross-sections. However, the conventional wings had to handle on the country better and to repair. He also discovered that high-speed systems are more favorable for the generation of electricity with less wings.

La Cour was clear early on that not only the production but also the storage of electrical energy was an important factor for the success of rural electrification. Batteries he considered too expensive and researched his life for a better alternative, which he always experimented with hydrogen to its production by electrolysis, he used the gained by the wind electric power.

As a consequence of working with hydrogen, he also developed a special gas light for hydrogen gas. 1885-1902 the school grounds was illuminated with these gas lamps. Subsequently, however, there were a few times deflagrations, after which had to be replaced some of the windows.

Other inventions were in 1891:

• The Cratostat (useful for wind tunnel tests on rotor blades, to compensate for imbalances? )
• A way to produce sodium carbonate by electrolysis,
• Welding techniques with hydrogen.

He has built a wind tunnel in Askov and it ( possibly the first ) carried out aerodynamic tests, due to which he could improve the wing shape of wind turbines on.

On October 28, 1903, he founded the Society of Wind Electricians ( Dansk Vindelektricitetsselskab, DVEs ) as a platform for supporting rural electrification. It Courses were offered in physical, geometrical and economic fundamentals that were relevant for the construction of such a facility. In addition, German and Danish was taught. One of his students was Johannes Juul, the wind turbine (200 kW) made ​​a further decisive step for the further development of the technology later with the development and construction of the 1957 made ​​Gedser.

The Society of Wind Electricians of la Cour was an important reason for the early development of decentralized electricity supply in Denmark. In the last years of his life la Cour had advice on building a centralized power grid in Denmark.

As a community college teacher, he had direct access to the living conditions of the rural population. He sat down his life committed to improving their living conditions. Business affairs he was never big, so that he drew no great financial advantage from his inventions. Some of his many patents he sold for little money to foreign companies with the condition that his inventions could be produced and sold freely in Denmark.

When he died on 24 April 1908, Denmark had 30 rural utilities with wind turbines.

The school grounds and buildings, in which Paul la Cour made ​​the most of his experiments were purchased in 1999 by a foundation to honor the life's work la Cours in this place with a museum.

Work

La Cour has fundamentally and scientifically researched and shown in his work the basics of the then state of the windmill technology. In particular, the aerodynamics of a windmill he could test his wind tunnel. At that time, electric power was increasingly becoming an important resource for the industry. La Cour, which it was aware of the findings therefore turned on the conversion of wind energy into electrical energy using windmills.

Translated into German publications:

• Paul la Cour: The wind power and its application to power electricity plants. Translated by John Kaufmann. Nachf. publisher of M. Heinsius, Leipzig 1905.
• Paul la Cour, Jacob Appel: The physics on the basis of their historical evolution of wider circles in word and picture shown. Translated by G. Siebert. Vieweg, Braunschweig, 1905.

Published in other languages ​​, mainly Danish:

• Isochronous and Synchronous Movements for Telegraph and Other Lines. Pat. 203423, Poul la Cour, Filed April 9, 1878, Washington
• Roue phonique pour la regularization you synchronisme of Movements. Note by P. la Cour in Comptes Rendus, v. 87, pp. 499-500, September 25, 1878
• Historisk Matematik. 1881
• Historisk Fysik. 1895
• Forsøgsmøllen. Copenhagen 1900
• ( Children's book about electricity)
• Editor of Tidsskrift for vindelektrisitet ( Journal of wind electricity), first published in 1904
• Helge Holst, Poul la Cour: The Triumph of the Human Spirit. Copenhagen 1904