Arthur Constantin Krebs

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Arthur Constantin Krebs.

Arthur Constantin Krebs (* 16th November 1850 in Vesoul , the department of Haute-Saône , France ; † 22. March 1935 in Quimperlé , department Finistère ) was a French professional officer , most recently as Commandant , researcher, inventor and automobile manager. His pioneering work in aviation , in submarines - and in automotive engineering is considered to be groundbreaking.

His inventions include electric propulsion systems for airships , submersibles and tanks , a gyrocompass , a periscope , an adjustable propeller , a steam cable winch for tethered balloons , a magnetic field telephone, an early magnetic clutch , the automatic carburetor , the multi-disc clutch and a precursor to the starter . Krebs succeeded Émile Levassor as technical director of the motor vehicle , engine and armaments manufacturer Panhard & Levassor , for which he filed numerous other patents. He supported basic research for helicopters and testified as an expert in the Selden trial for the rights to the invention of the automobile.

Arthur Constantin Krebs became an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1884 , a knight in 1900 and shortly before his death the Commander of the Legion of Honor. Together with Charles Renard he received the Prix ​​Ponti of the Académie des sciences in 1886 , of which he was a member and officer.

Beyond the respect in scientific circles, the engineer and researcher was a well-known and popular personality as the Commandant Krebs .

Origin and youth

Arthur Krebs ancestors originally came from Boppard am Rhein ( Germany ) and had become French citizens during the French Revolution . Krebs spent part of his childhood in Bonifacio , Corsica . At the age of 16 he was admitted to the Lycée Impérial in Besançon .

An atypical military career

During Krebs' entrance exam to the École Polytechnique , war broke out with Germany and the exams were canceled. Krebs volunteered and served in an artillery regiment in Besançon . In November 1870 he was promoted to Sous-Lieutenant and was transferred to an infantry regiment. In September 1871 he entered the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr , where he graduated in engineering in 1873 . Relocations to various units followed by 1878. Cancer was also busy with inventions at this time. A boat built according to his plans in 1875 is particularly mentioned.

Chalais-Meudon aeronautical station

Charles Renard

Probably because of his occupation with balloons and tethered balloons in warfare, Lieutenant Krebs was transferred to the 138th Infantry Regiment de ligne in July 1878 and assigned to work on the airship France in the Établissement Central de l'Aérostation Militaire in Chalais near Meudon . The facility was founded in 1877 by the engineer Capitaine Charles Renard (1847-1905), who also directed it. With his brother Paul Renard (1854–1933), who was also employed here, he had long been involved in the development of dirigibles . The development was supported by a government grant of 200,000 FF.

In 1879 an airship hall was built next to the existing workshop . It is considered the first of its kind and was created using elements of an iron structure that the architect Henri de Dion (1828–1878) had created for the machine hall of the 1878 World's Fair in Paris. This structure, known as Hangar Y, has been preserved as a protected building.

The Renards were responsible for the hull, structure and hull of the airship, Krebs for the electric drive. For this purpose, an engine laboratory was set up, which is considered the first of its kind.

For the experiments with tethered balloons, Krebs constructed a horse-drawn and steam-powered cable winch with two cable drums attached in parallel and a separating device for the tether. A version improved by him was still used in the First World War for artillery observation balloons.

Airship "La France"

The dirigible “La France” on August 9, 1884 above Hangar Y in Parc de Chalais , Meudon

Work on the airship La France began in 1877. It was 52 meters long and had an electric motor with 8½ hp (6.25 kW). The first free flight with Krebs, Charles Renard and Adrien Duté-Poitevin succeeded as early as November 26, 1878, the landing allegedly on the lawn in front of the castle of Count Curial. On August 9, 1884 , Krebs and Renard managed to conduct a fully guided flight, on which the airship finally returned to its starting point of the flight. The airship rose from Hangar Y and drove a circle of approx. 7.6 km, which included the village of Villacoublay . The tour lasted 23 minutes and La France reached a speed of 19.8 km / h. The landing took place again at Hangar Y. The population reacted enthusiastically. This was repeated several times until 1885.

The development of La France took place in competition with similar experiments by Henri Giffard and the brothers Albert and Gaston Tissandier (1843–1899), who at about the same time also constructed an electrically powered airship. Gaston Tissandier was the founder and editor of the journal La Nature , for which Krebs also wrote relevant articles.

Airships were used by the French army as early as 1884 during the Tonkin Campaign , during the Sino-French War and in 1900 during the China expedition .

Submarine "Gymnote"

Gymnote in dry dock, 1889. The gentleman in the hat is Arthur Krebs

In October 1886, Krebs was appointed to the technical commission of the Paris 1889 World's Fair .

Through his work on the airship France , Krebs was acquainted with the ship designer Henri Dupuy de Lôme (1816–1885), who had already implemented a similar project earlier, but which was abandoned. Lôme and Gustave Zédé (1825–1891) designed a submarine as a test ship. After Lôme's death, Zédé obtained building permission from the French Navy in November 1886. It was probably he who was able to win Krebs over to the development of the electric drive. The contract was awarded to the Société des Forges et Chantiers in Toulon , where Zédé was a member of the management team; the execution was carried out by the Toulon naval arsenal at its shipyard in the Mourillon district. The keel was laid in April 1887 and the launch in September 1888. The first tests took place in November. In its original form, La Gymnote had a length of 17.6 m, a water displacement of 31 tons and a 5-man crew.

In addition to the drive constructed resp. Krebs also improved the submarine's periscope and electronic gyrocompass. With the Gymnote it was possible for the first time to stay on course under water for several hours. The boat stayed in service for eight years.

  • Electric gyro compass by Arthur Krebs

  • Sectional drawing of the gym grade .

  • Gustave Zédé (1825-1891)

Paris Fire Brigade

Horse-drawn steam syringe Durenne & Krebs , photo from 1888
Steam syringe type Durenne & Krebs at the Paris fire brigade, photo c. 1900

On November 10, 1880, Krebs was promoted to captain ( Capitaine ). On May 2, 1884, he was transferred to the Régiment de sapeurs-pompiers de Paris , the Paris fire brigade , a military unit since it was founded. In 1866 it had been expanded to regimental strength by battalions ; their commander held the rank of colonel . In the times of Krebs it was subordinate to the War Ministry, today it is affiliated to the Ministry of the Interior. The available sources do not reveal what function Captain Krebs initially held; What is certain, however, is that he was able to continue his work on the dirigible "La France" here as well. On December 20, 1884, he was appointed captain-ingénieur responsible for the technical equipment of the Paris fire brigade, a position normally occupied by an officer with the rank of major.

In 1886, Krebs received a patent for a horse-drawn steam syringe. It was manufactured as Type Durenne & Krebs from 1888 . However, it was inferior to British products; their manufacturers, such as Merryweather & Sons or Mason, Shand & Co. , had many years of experience. The latter was also preferred to a tender in Lyon.

On July 27, 1888, Krebs received a patent for a magnetic field telephone. At this time, the fire brigade was alerted by publicly accessible telegraphs . At a meeting on December 11, 1888, Captain Krebs suggested introducing a telephone system instead. There were concerns about the cost and because the telephone alarm, unlike the telegraph, does not leave a written trace.

automobile

Voiture système cancer

Voiture système Krebs in the Bois de Boulogne with Arthur Constantin Krebs at the steering lever (1896)
The AC Krebs electromagnetic transmission, patented in 1896

Since 1884, Krebs followed the development of the Daimler engine and its spread in France thanks to the licensee Panhard & Levassor . From around 1895 he began to work on the design of his own and very innovative automobile. He invented a magnetic coupling for this purpose and solved the problem of vibrations transmitted from the engine to the chassis by designing the chassis in two parts. One element served as an engine mount and the other as a chassis mount, the connection was flexible.

Krebs received a patent on the vehicle, which he offered Panhard & Levassor in 1897 . The technical director, Émile Levassor , was examining these plans when he died on April 14, 1897 on the job.

Panhard & Levassor

Émile Levassor

Levassor (1843–1897) had already brought Krebs to Panhard & Levassor as a consultant in 1890 because of his knowledge of engine construction . Krebs set up the licensed production of Daimler engines here, but remained in military service until 1897.

After Levassor's death, Krebs was offered his position as technical director. Now he ended his military career and concentrated on his job in the renowned company, which has now been reorganized as Compagnie des Anciennes Etablissements Panhard & Levassor . Panhard & Levassor went through troubled times. After Levassor's death it was reorganized as a stock corporation, with the Panhard family no longer holding the majority. The new main shareholder was the entrepreneur Adolphe Clément (1855-1928), who left the chairmanship to René Panhard (1841-1908). On September 18, 1898, the company's production manager, Émile Mayade (1853–1898), died in one of the first accidents involving an automobile.

Levassor maintained friendly contacts with Gottlieb Daimler and was able to acquire the rights to replicate Daimler engines that were used by Panhard & Levassor. His widow inherited these rights after his death. Relations with Mme Levassor as well as with Daimler cooled down and legal disputes arose over reimbursements from engine patents. In this context, the board reprimanded its chairman René Panhard, who was apparently too keen on a compensation. He resigned in 1899 and Krebs also took over this position; he kept technical management. In the same year the company's first engine brochure was published. Power generators, pump drives as well as stationary and boat motors were offered. These products were derived from the Daimler engines. In the next few years, Krebs expanded this area into a second mainstay that was almost as important as vehicle production.

Clément-Panhard

Clément-Panhard 3½ CV Type VCP Phaëton (1899)

In addition to all the work, Krebs also found time to design. In 1898 Panhard & Levassor acquired the rights to his design for an inexpensive voiturette . It was designed from the ground up as a light vehicle and may be considered one of the first attempts to design an automobile for a mass market. Not as innovative as its prototype from 1896, the advantages lay in the simple structure and ease of use. The public reception was very good and Panhard & Levassor received 300 pre-orders after the presentation. However, the production of their own high-priced automobiles was more than busy. Adolphe Clément therefore suggested manufacturing the vehicle as a joint venture in his Société Gladiator in Levallois-Perret . Production of the small car now known as Clément-Panhard Type VCP ( V oiturette C lément- P anhard) started at the end of 1898. Because a second production license went to Stirling's Motor Carriages in Hamilton (South Lanarkshire) ( United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ), the Clément-Panhard was also one of the first automobiles to be produced in parallel in two countries.

Another important invention was patented by Krebs in 1902. He designed an automatic carburetor, which can be considered the predecessor of the carburetor used in vehicle construction for decades.

Selden

Cancer testimony was taken under oath in the US Circuit Court, Southern District of New York City

Krebs visited the United States three times, in 1885, 1893 and 1906. The first two visits were for information about the American fire service, the third was as a witness and expert witness in the Selden patent dispute before the Circuit Court of the Southern District of New York City . There Henry Ford was charged with infringing the automobile patent administered by the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM). The SA of the Anciennes Etablissements Panhard & Levassor had themselves been indicted and, like Mercedes, had reached a settlement in 1905, which obliged both of them to pay license fees to the ALAM. The plaintiffs were the Electric Vehicle Company as the patent holder and George Baldwin Selden . Cancer questioned under oath; his statements were directly related to technical experience with steam engines, the engines of Daimler and Benz and early automobiles. The prosecution tried again and again with objections to prevent his statements as "irrelevant", "unqualified" and "experience outside the US". His findings did not affect the process in Ford's favor; he was found guilty of patent infringement in the first instance in 1909. He only achieved partial success in 1912 in an appointment negotiation. The court then affirmed the patent claim, but limited it to vehicles with the Brayton engine used by Selden . In the meantime, however, the gasoline engine had established itself and not a single mass-produced vehicle used such a drive, which made the patent - which was only valid for one year - worthless.

The dispute with Mme Levassor did not end with an expensive settlement until 1914.

4x4 and armored vehicles

Panhard-Châtillon heavy artillery tractor; Prototype from 1911
Saint-Chamond tank

In 1910, the former artillery lieutenant colonel de Port approached Panhard & Levassor with the idea of ​​building a heavy tractor with all-wheel drive and steering . De Port was a technical advisor to the Compagnie des Forges de Châtillon-Commentry et Neuves-Maisons . The vehicle had its own cardan shaft for each wheel. A four-cylinder slide motor, license Knight with 40 HP, built by Panhard & Levassor served as the drive .

From 1911 trials of the French army took place. In July 1912, the vehicle demonstrated its ability to pull either a 155 mm cannon with limb or a heavy 220 mm mortar with limb and base plate. 14 soldiers drove along on the truck. The trailer load exceeded 12 tons. Unloaded, the Châtillon-Panhard pulled up to 15 tons at a speed of 8 km / h. In the spring maneuvers of 1913, the Châtillon-Panhard was subjected to a direct comparison with a rear-wheel drive truck and another four-wheel drive truck from Latil . Among other things, a non-stop trip over 100 km was carried out in an unladen condition and one over 60 km with a full load. At the end of the test, which lasted several weeks, the vehicles were dismantled. Problems arose in 1914 when all tractors stopped after long rain in heavy terrain because the guns sank into the ground. A second order was canceled and the already delivered 50 Châtillon-Panhards went to the 4th heavy artillery regiment, which was equipped with 120-mm guns. On July 14, 1914, the regiment was the first mechanized unit to be shown at the great parade in Paris.

Krebs was also involved in the innovative propulsion system of the first French battle tank, Saint-Chamond . The tank drove electrically and was steered by means of resistance . However, it has not been adequately tested and has conceptual errors. The angle of approach and departure was completely inadequate due to a huge front transition, and the American Holt chains were unsuitable for military use.

Next life

Citroen 8 CV Type A Torpedo (1919)

In 1916, Krebs left the board of Panhard & Levassor, but continued to work as a consultant for the company.

At the request of André Citroën , he wrote a technical report on the planned Citroën Type A and its assembly line production in 1919 . The favorable report for Citroën helped it to find investors to switch its production from ammunition to automobiles.

family

On November 29, 1881, Krebs married Marie Caroline Clémence de Fréminville . The family had eight children. Her son Louis (May 11, 1886 - August 24, 1944) became a well-known engineer, boat designer, entrepreneur and author of a non-fiction book on tuna fishing . During World War II he was a high-ranking member of the Resistance . He died on August 24, 1944 when the Germans withdrew from Concarneau .

Honors

Contemporary depiction of the balloonists Charles Renard , Henri Dupuy de Lôme and Arthur Constantin Krebs.

Remarks

  1. ↑ treuil à deux tambours paralleles

literature

  • Bernard Vermeylen: Panhard & Levassor. Entre tradition et modernité. ETAI, Boulogne-Billancourt, 2005; ISBN 2-7268-9406-2 .
  • Halwart Schrader (Ed.): Motor Men: People, myths and engines of automobile history. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, 1st edition, 2011; ISBN 3-613-03202-3 .
  • Hans Christoph von Seherr-Thoss : Dictionary of famous personalities in the automobile world. Ivy House Publishing, Raleigh NC, USA, 1st edition; 2005; ISBN 1-57197-333-8 .
  • Jacques Rousseau: Guide de l'Automobile française. Éditions Solar, Paris (1988); ISBN 2-263-01105-6 .
  • Alec Ulmann: L'Automobile Club de France. In Automobile Quarterly. ISSN  0005-1438 , Volume IV, No. 2 (1965), pp. 208 ff
  • Reinhard Seiffert: The Gottlieb Daimler era: New perspectives on the early history of the automobile and its technology. Vieweg + Teubner, 2009; ISBN 3-8348-0962-4 .
  • Richard v. Frankenberg, Marco Matteucci: History of the Automobile. Sigloch Service Edition / STIG Torino, 1973; without ISBN.
  • Hans-Otto Neubauer (ed.): Chronicle of the automobile. Chronik Verlag in Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich, 1994; ISBN 3-570-14338-4 .
  • GN Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. Dutton Press, New York, 2nd Edition, 1973; ISBN 0-525-08351-0 .
  • Ferdinand Hediger: Classic Cars 1919–1939. Hallwag-Verlag Ostfildern, July 1998; ISBN 3-444-10348-4 .
  • Thomas Ulrich: Paris-Madrid: The greatest race of all time. Monsenstein & Vannerdat (2nd edition, December 6, 2013), ISBN 3-942153-14-9 , ISBN 978-3-942153-14-0 .
  • B. von Lengerke: Automobile races and competitions. (1894–1907), Fachbuchverlag-Dresden, 1st edition (April 25, 2014), facsimile of a work from 1908 (Richard Carl Schmidt & Co., Berlin); ISBN 3-95692-272-7 , ISBN 978-3-95692-272-5 .
  • William Greenleaf: Monopoly on Wheels: Henry Ford and the Selden Automobile Patent. Great Lakes Books / Wayne State University Press (March 15, 2011; first edition 1955); ISBN 0-8143-3512-8 .

Web links

Commons : Arthur Constantin Krebs  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Base Leonore: Arthur Constantin Krebs, Document 6/42.
  2. ^ Seherr-Thoss: Dictionary of famous personalities in the automobile world. 2005, p. 90 (AC Krebs)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o rbnm.free.fr; Arthur Constantin Krebs website: Chronologie et Archives.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Au fil des mots et de l'histoire: Charles RENARD - Pionnier de l'aviation.
  5. ↑ Les Doyennes de Panhard (Club P & L): Biography d'Arthur Constantin Krebs
  6. ^ A b website on Arthur Constantin Krebs: Archives: Comptes-Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, 1882-1931
  7. ↑ a b c Delgado, Cussler: Silent Killers: Submarines and Underwater Warfare , 2011
  8. ↑ le-minot.com: Histoire arsenal du Mourillon.
  9. ↑ a b Website on Arthur Constantin Krebs: Arthur Krebs pionnier de la navigation sous-marine - Le bateau sous-marin "Gymnote", Torpilleur électrique sous-marin.
  10. ↑ Arthur Constantin Krebs website: Krebs Periscope.
  11. ↑ theses.univ-lyon2.fr: Les pompes à incendie en Vapeur: Le premier caractère de la puissance.
  12. ↑ a b Website on Arthur Constantin Krebs : Archives: Archives P&L, Musée National de l'Automobile .
  13. ^ Website on Arthur Constantin Krebs: Système de téléphone à champs magnétique fermé avec plaques cylindriques concentriques égales, Brevet d'invention du 27 juillet 1888.
  14. ↑ Vermeylen: Panhard & Levassor. 2005, p. 20
  15. ↑ a b Vermeylen: Panhard & Levassor. 2005, p. 22
  16. ↑ motorbase.com: Clément-Panhard
  17. ^ Website on Arthur Constantin Krebs: La Voiture légère Type VCP.
  18. ↑ Vermeylen: Panhard & Levassor. 2005, p. 30
  19. ↑ rbnm.free.fr; Website about Arthur Constantin Krebs : letters from the USA to his wife (October 6th – November 13th, 1906) and an outline of the Selden patent dispute from the perspective of Panhard & Levassor 1903-1911
  20. ↑ a b landships.info: Chatillon Panhard.
  21. ^ L'Homme Libre: grand journal quotidien du matin , edition of January 26, 1935, p. 3, in the Bibliotheque nationale de France
personal data
SURNAME Cancer, Arthur Constantin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French inventor, aerospace, submarine and motor vehicle pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Vesoul
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1935
Place of death Quimperlé