Aurel stodola

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Aurel Boreslav Stodola

Aurel Boreslav Stodola (also Aurel Bo l eslav Stodola ; born May 10, 1859 in Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš , Liptov County in today's Slovakia; † December 25, 1942 in Zurich ) was an engineer who significantly advanced the theoretical and practical further development of turbines . He did most of this work as a professor of mechanical engineering and machine design at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (from 1908 technical university).

Live and act

Aurel Stodola was born in 1859 in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Slovakia ), which was part of the Austrian Empire . From 1877 he studied mechanical engineering , first at the polytechnic school in Budapest , then from 1878 at the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich , where he received his diploma with distinction in 1881 . After completing his studies, Stodola first helped rebuild his father's leather factory, which had been destroyed by fire. He then worked for the Ruston mechanical engineering factory in Prague from 1884 to 1892 .

In March 1892, Stodola was appointed professor of mechanical engineering and machine design at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. Here he quickly built up his worldwide reputation as an outstanding specialist in the field of flow machines and heat engines . He was valued as a theorist as well as a practitioner and teacher. At the Polytechnic he set up the most modern machine laboratory in Europe and worked closely with local industry ( Escher, Wyss & Cie. , Brown, Boveri & Cie. , ...). He formulated the cone law , sometimes also known as Stodola's law , for the operating behavior of turbines. Stodola's advice made a major contribution to the fact that Heinrich Zoelly was able to build his first multi-stage action turbine in 1903 and that Hans Holzwarth was able to build the first gas turbine ready for series production from 1905 . In 1903 Stodola first published his textbook “The steam turbines and their prospects as heat engines and about the gas turbine” , in short: “Steam and gas turbines” , which became the standard work of thermal turbomachinery construction over numerous editions and translated into many languages.

The versatile pacifist and professor Stodola did not only work in the field of turbines. For example, Stodola developed B. also a hand prosthesis in collaboration with Ferdinand Sauerbruch . As a contribution to the technology discussion, he wrote the book "Thoughts on a Weltanschauung from the viewpoint of the engineer" (Springer-Verlag, 1931). He also dealt with philosophical and economic issues and corresponded with contemporaries such as Albert Einstein and Albert Schweitzer .

After his retirement in 1929, he continued to work in research and industry. He died in Zurich in 1942.

Honors

Stodola have received numerous honors and awards - partly during their lifetime, partly posthumously . He received honorary doctorates from the University of Hanover (1905), the University of Brno and the University of Prague (1929). He was a consultant and corresponding member of the French Académie des sciences (Academy of Sciences). In 1929 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1908 he was awarded the Grashof Memorial Medal by the Association of German Engineers and, in old age, the James Watt Medal in 1941 . In 1937 he was elected a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .

Albert Einstein said about him:

“If he had been born into the Renaissance, he would have become a great painter or sculptor. Because the strongest instinct in his personality is imagination and creative urge. "

- Albert Einstein

Since 2004, the ETH has been commemorating the work and life of Stodola with a special Aurel Stodola Lecture .

literature

  • Steam and gas turbines. With an appendix on the prospects for heat engines. VDI, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-18-400727-8 (= classic of technology , reprint of the 5th edition, Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 1922 / foreword by Hans-Joachim Braun).
  • Norbert Lang: Aurel Stodola (1859-1942) - pioneer of the steam and gas turbine , Association for Economic History Studies, Meilen 2003, ISBN 3-909059-26-0 (= pioneers of Swiss economy and technology ).
  • Norbert Lang:  Stodola, Aurel . In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 . 2nd revised edition (online only).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Hans Rudolf Berndorff : That was my life. Kindler & Schiermeyer, Bad Wörishofen 1951; cited: Licensed edition for Bertelsmann Lesering, Gütersloh 1956, pp. 183–193.
  2. ↑ Monika Burri : Aurel Stodola's design for a hand prosthesis. ETH Zurich, accessed on March 30, 2011 .
  3. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter S. Académie des sciences, accessed on March 5, 2020 (French).
  4. ↑ Aurel Stodola in Radio Slovakia International on January 12, 2011, accessed on March 30, 2011.
  5. ↑ [1] .

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personal data
SURNAME Stodola, Aurel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stodola, Aurel Boreslav; Stodola, Aurel Boleslav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mechanical engineer
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Liptovský Mikuláš
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1942
Place of death Zurich