Arturo Caprotti

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Memorial plaque on Caprotti's birthplace

Arturo Caprotti (born March 22, 1881 in Moscazzano , † February 10, 1938 in Milan ) was an Italian engineer .

Life

The Villa Giomi in Lucca was built according to Caprotti's plans.

Arturo was the son of Giuseppe Caprotti, a community secretary in Moscazzano in the province of Cremona , and Albina Moretti. In addition to the two-year preliminary training for his engineering degree in Pavia , he attended the prestigious Collegio Ghislieri there . However , he made his degree in industrial engineering in Turin in 1905 . Then he started to work in Florence in the Fabbrica di Automobili Florentia . He was interested in thermodynamics and thermotechnology as well as mechanics .

In 1917 he married Iole Martinelli, a banker's daughter. According to other sources, he married her in 1910 and in 1912 a small two-story villa was built according to his plans on the father-in-law's property. Villino Jole (today Macchia) is located next to Villa Martinelli in Via Paganini No. 76 in Lucca . Occasionally Caprotti devoted himself to other architectural projects, such as B. 1913 Villa Giomi .

In 1958, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death, the community of Moscazzano attached a plaque to the house where he was born. In addition, streets there and in Rome have been named after him.

Inventions

The Kh.111 of the Steiermärkische Landesbahnen equipped with Caprotti valve control in the Museum Frojach of the Club 760

In January 1921, the first steam locomotive ( Consolidation No. 740.324) with the Caprotti control , a valve control designed by him, was put into regular operation at the Ferrovie dello Stato . The invention was accompanied by reports in the international specialist press. As a result, the controls were also built into existing locomotives. Since 1926, locomotives operated by William Beardmore and Company operated in the network of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway with this control; in the United States , Baldwin Locomotive Works installed the control in locomotives. In Germany and Austria, however, the control was used on an experimental basis. The control was later used in the rail network of France, India, Egypt and Romania as well as other countries. It was also installed in steamboats that sailed on Lake Como and in the Venetian lagoon , as well as in two English-made ships.

Comparison runs in Germany in the presence of Caprotti with a conventional Prussian P 8 controlled by piston valves and a P 8 converted to Caprotti valve control resulted in less favorable steam and coal consumption values ​​of the locomotive with valve control compared to those with piston valve control, and the Caprotti control was more prone to failure.

The London Institution of Locomotive Engineers awarded him a gold medal for his invention.

Fonts

  • Scappamento ed ammissione nei motori a due tempi: Studio sull'efflusso dei gas attraverso alle Luci di scarico ed ammissione e calcolo delle stesse , Tip. Succ. Fratelli Nistri, Pisa 1909.
  • Descrizione del Trovato avente per titolo argano universale caprotti , Tip. A. Amedei, Lucca 1913.
  • A new poppet valve gear for locomotives, Caprotti system , Casa Ed. Italiana, Rome 1922, 20 pages and 2 plates. Then published in French in 1922 by the same publisher.
  • La distribuzione Caprotti by locomotive , tip. Poliglotta, Milan 1930, 22 pages plus plate.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Homepage of the municipality of Moscazzano
  2. ^ A b c M. Gaudiano: Arturo Caprotti in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.
  3. ↑ Lorenza Caprotti: Entry of Villa Martinelli on luccaterre.it
  4. ↑ Lorenza Caprotti: Entry of Villino Jiole and entry of Villa Giomi on luccaterre.it
  5. ↑ See photography.
  6. ↑ Contribution by Werner Boy in: Alfred B. Gottwaldt: History of the German standard locomotives. The steam locomotives of the Reichsbahn and their designers . Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1978, Reprint Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-440-07941-4 , p. 77
personal data
SURNAME Caprotti, Arturo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian engineer
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscazzano
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1938
Place of death Milan