Adalbert Ritter von Schmid

Adalbert von Schmid, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1856

Adalbert Ritter von Schmid (* 1804 in Gurschdorf in Austrian Silesia ; † 1868 in Vienna ) was an Austrian railway technician and advisor in the Ministry of Commerce in Vienna.

Life

Schmid was appointed General Director of the Railway Operations Department in 1850. In 1851 the " Railway Operating Regulations for Austria " were issued, on which he played a key role. He was then appointed head of the new Directorate-General for Communications, the Railway Inspectorate. In 1853 he was a consultant for railway operations in the Ministry of Commerce. From 1855 operational director of the southern state railways Vienna – Graz until the sale of the state railways in December 1858. In 1861 he joined the newly established Ministry of Trade and Economics and in 1866 retired.

Schmid is considered the inventor of the "continuous screw wheel brake system Schmid" . It differs from the other friction brakes in that the brake pads are not tightened directly by the friction rollers, but a screw brake device is actuated with the latter, through which the brake pads are tightened. While with the Heberlein brake the wheels of the braked vehicles are not held against the direction of travel and stretching of the train due to the buffer effect or rolling backwards on an incline is not prevented, this brake remains closed for each direction of travel. At the beginning of the 20th century, the use of Schmid's brakes was abandoned, as z. B. could not be achieved even braking effect on long freight trains.

Fonts

• Assessing the Semmering locomotive
• Calculations of the performance of locomotives and the running costs of the railways
• About the conservation of railway sleepers
• About electricity as a telegraph and guardian on railways

source

• Röll, Freiherr von: Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens, Volume 8. Berlin, Vienna 1917, pp. 364–365., Http://www.zeno.org/Roell-1912/A/Schmid

literature

• P. Mechtler:  Adalbert von Schmidt. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 237 f. (Direct links on p. 237 , p. 238 ).