Adolf parish

Plaque in honor of Adolf Pfarr in the old main building of the TU Darmstadt

Adolf Pfarr (born December 11, 1851 in Frankfurt am Main ; † December 12, 1912 in Darmstadt ) was a German university professor for mechanical engineering.

Life

Georg Adolf Pfarr was born in December 1851 in Frankfurt am Main, the son of the Appellate Council Johann Josef Wilhelm Pfarr and his wife Anna Elisabeth Einbiegler. After attending the Kassel educational institution and the higher industrial school in his hometown - an institution of the Polytechnic Society - and a one-year traineeship in a machine tool factory in Offenbach , Pfarr studied mechanical engineering at the Royal Polytechnic in Stuttgart from 1870 to 1873 (today: University of Stuttgart ). His teacher there was v. a. Wilhelm von Kankelwitz (1831-1892). Kankelwitz was appointed professor at the Stuttgart Polytechnic in 1868. He read about water motors, water pumps and factories and held exercises in their construction.

Pfarr therefore began to deal with water turbines and paper production. After completing his studies, he became a designer for a woodworking machine company . For a short time he was also employed by the Deutsche Wasserwerkgesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main. On the mediation of Kankelwitz Pfarr went to the company JM Voith in Heidenheim in 1875 .

Together with Kankelwitz, who stood by the company as a scientific advisor, and Carl Ludwig Fink, Pfarr played a key role in the rapid development of the Voith company under Friedrich Voith . In his 25 years at Voith, Pfarr contributed many inventions and improvements in the development of Francis turbines , wood grinders and paper machines through to the planning of entire production plants. This was crucial for the rapid development of the company, which gradually achieved international renown. The Francis turbine with rotating vanes and spiral casing for the guide vanes, which was (further) developed at Voith at the suggestion of Kankelwitz and von Pfarr, prevailed in Germany. It became the main type of water turbine in Germany. Kankelwitz, Pfarr and Voith thus made an important contribution to the development of German hydropower engineering. For his services, Pfarr was appointed director at Voith in Heidenheim.

former mechanical engineering laboratory V

On June 17, 1897, Pfarr was appointed as a full professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt on the "Chair of Mechanical Engineering V" for hydropower machines, hydraulics and factories. He started his service in the winter semester of 1897/98. With him, the water turbines were the first hydraulic turbo machines to be used in teaching and research at the TH Darmstadt. Pfarr finally managed to get a mechanical engineering laboratory V suitable for his teaching and research purposes, which was housed in the western side wing (34 by 10 meters) of the machine house built by Georg Wickop from 1901 to 1904. The mechanical engineering laboratory V contained a low-pressure, medium-pressure and high-pressure circuit, which allowed targeted investigations on all hydraulic machines known at the time . This mechanical engineering laboratory V for water power machines, which went into operation in 1905, was trend-setting for similar laboratories that were subsequently established at other technical universities. The laboratory was operated until the facility was destroyed by the heavy air raid on Darmstadt in the night of September 11th to 12th, 1944.

On Pfarr's initiative and after numerous negotiations between the Association of German Paper Manufacturers (VDP), representatives of the Grand Ducal Government and representatives of the TH Darmstadt, an institute and a course for paper engineering were established at the TH Darmstadt in January 1905 . For a long time this was a unique special training in Germany. Pfarr recognized the need for chemical processes and promoted the development of cellulose chemistry at the TH Darmstadt, which took place in 1908. In 1912 a test paper machine was put into operation at the Institute for Paper Manufacture, which was donated by the Banning und Seybold company from Düren . Adolf Pfarr was also in international demand as a consultant for the construction of large hydropower plants.

Pfarr was dean of the mechanical engineering department from 1900 to 1902 and rector of the TH Darmstadt in 1902/03. Adolf Pfarr died completely unexpectedly the day after his 61st birthday. He was married to Marie Friederike Jäger since 1879.

Honors

• April 4, 1900: Appointment to the Secret Building Council
• August 21, 1901: Award of the Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Order of Merit of Philip the Magnanimous
• 1912: Dr.-Ing. E. h. of the TH Aachen
• after 1912: memorial plaque in the (old) main building of TU Darmstadt.

Publications

• 1907: The turbines for hydropower: their theory and construction, Berlin.
• 1908: The Laboratory for Water Power Machines (V), in: The Grand Ducal Technical University of Darmstadt 1896–1908. Festschrift to celebrate the opening of the extension on July 23, 1908, Darmstadt 1908, pp. 107–116.
• 1912: Experiments on the pressure distribution in the running cells of working reaction turbines, in: Mitteilungen über Forschungsarbeiten in der Ingenieurwesen, H. 120.

literature

• Adolf Pfarr in: Stadtlexikon Darmstadt , Stuttgart 2006, p. 706.
• Manfred Hampe and Gerhard Pahl (eds.): On the history of mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt , Düsseldorf 2008, pp. 94–96.
• Jürgen Osterwalder: Hydraulic machines and systems , in: 100 years of the Technical University of Darmstadt, yearbook 1976/77, Darmstadt, 1977, pp. 342-344.
• Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt , Darmstadt 1977, p. 157.