Egide Walschaerts
Egide Walschaerts (born January 21, 1820 in Mechelen , † February 18, 1901 in St. Gilles near Brussels) was a Belgian mechanical engineer .
He studied in Liège and in 1842 came to the workshops of the Belgian State Railways, later the SNCB .
In 1844 he invented the Walschaerts control , named after him in non-German-speaking countries , which was to become the most common control for steam locomotives worldwide. This control allows the degree of filling of the steam cylinder to be set without influencing the pre- inflow or pre-flow ; it also enables the direction of rotation of the steam engine to be changed by reversing the direction . In German-speaking countries, this control is called Heusinger control (after Edmund Heusinger von Waldegg ), who invented it about five years later independently of Walschaerts.
He also invented further improvements for steam engines and was awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1878 and the World Exhibition in Liège in 1885 .
References
- ^ William Wallace Wood, The Walschaert locomotive valve gear; a practical treatise on the locomitive valve actuating mechanism originally invented by Egide Walschaerts, with the history of its development by American and European engine designers, and its evolution into the mechanically correct locomotive valve gear of the present day (English; PDF; 2.8 MB), New York, The NW Henley publishing co., 1906; Page 13 ff.
This text is based on a translation of the article en: Egide Walschaerts from the English Wikipedia .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Walschaerts, Egide |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian mechanical engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 21, 1820 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mechlin , Belgium |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 18, 1901 |
| Place of death | St. Gilles , Belgium |