Carl Roman Dept.

Carl Roman Dept.

Carl Roman Abt (in literature sometimes also Carl Abt ; * July 16, 1850 in Bünzen ; † May 1, 1933 in Lucerne ) was a Swiss mechanical engineer , inventor and entrepreneur .

biography

Abbot system using the example of a drive axle on a cog railway on the Snowdon Mountain Railway , 1923

Abt'sche Weiche at the Dresden funicular, opened in 1895 (picture from 1985)

The son of the straw-woven industrialist Roman Abt graduated from the district school in Muri and the canton school in Frauenfeld . In his youth he had been involved in the construction and improvement of braiding machines , which is why he studied mechanical engineering at the Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum (now ETH Zurich ) from 1869 to 1872 .

After completing his studies, he worked as a designer in the central workshop of the Swiss Central Railway in Olten , then until 1879 in the factory of the International Mountain Railway Company in Aarau, which was managed by Niklaus Riggenbach and Olivier Zschokke . Until 1881 he worked as a control engineer in the Federal Railway Department, after which he went into business for himself.

Abt made groundbreaking inventions, for example the " System Abt " for rack railways through a combination of adhesion and rack rail locomotives, as well as the automatic Abt switch without moving parts for funicular railways . He personally managed the construction of 72 mountain railways in all parts of the world. These included the Visp-Zermatt-Bahn , the Gornergratbahn , the Furka-Oberalp-Bahn and the Monte Generoso-Bahn in Switzerland itself. As president of the Gotthard Railway Company in 1903, when the private railways were nationalized, he negotiated the repurchase with the Federation.

Abt received many honors, including an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Hanover . In addition, Abbot, who achieved great wealth through his professional work and his inventions, was an art connoisseur and patron . As such, he was a member of the Federal Art Commission from 1904 to 1907 and President of the Swiss Art Association from 1905 to 1911. Abbot mainly collected works of goldsmithing. He never missed a coin or medal if they aroused his artistic interest through their particular beauty. His large collection in this regard was auctioned off after his death. Thanks to a generous donation, he was a key sponsor of the construction of the district hospital for the Freiamt in Muri, which was opened to the public on December 10, 1908.

His younger brother Heinrich Eugen Abt and his nephew Heinrich Roman Abt embarked on political careers and were both on the National Council .

Route overview

Cog railways system Abt (beginning)

designation	Track width- mm	Total length km / gear	Slope o / oo adhesion / gear	Minim. Radius m adhesion / gear	Year of construction (s)	Stretch A = adhesion Z = gear
Harz Railway , Braunschweig	1435	30.7 / 7.5	25/60	180/200	1884/1886	A and Z
Lehesten, Thuringia	1435	2.7 / 1.3	35/80	150/150	1885	A and Z
Oertelsbruch, Thuringia	690	5.0 / 0.7	50/135	35/100	1885	A and Z
Puerto Cabelleo-Valencia, Venezuela	1067	3.8 / 3.8	- / 80	- / 125	1886	Z
Visp-Zermatt , Switzerland	1000	35.0 / 7.5	28/125	80/100	1889/1890	A and Z
Generoso , Switzerland	800	9.0 / 9.0	- / 220	- / 60	1889/1890	Z
Sarajevo-Konjica , Bosnia	760	56.0 / 19.5	15/60	125/125	1890	A and Z
Eisenerz-Vordernberg , Styria	1435	20.0 / 14.5	25/71	150/180	1890	A and Z
Manitou-Pike's Peak , Colorado	1435	15.0 / 15.0	- / 250	- / 115	1890	Z
Transandino, South America	1000	75.0 / 28.0	25/80	115/200	1890	A and Z
Schafbergbahn , Upper Austria / Salzburg	1000	5.85 / 5.85	- / 255	- / 80	1893	Z
Schneebergbahn , Lower Austria	1000	9.80 / 9.80	- / 196	- / 80	1897	Z

literature

• Hans G. Wägli: Carl Roman Abt. In: Werner Latscha (Hrsg.): Seven mountain railway pioneers. Association for economic-historical studies, Zurich 2005, pp. 23–34, ISBN 978-3-909059-34-8 (= Swiss pioneers in business and technology . Volume 81).
• Biographical Lexicon of the Canton of Aargau 1803–1957 . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 68/69 . Sauerländer, Aarau 1958, p. 13-14 .
• Auction catalog of the Abt collection: Friday, May 22, 1936, by Adolph Hess AG, Lucerne. Title: Coin Collection Dr. hc Roman Abt †, Lucerne. Coins and medals from Switzerland and other countries. 16 pages with 155 lots and 16 collotype plates.
• Arthur Meyer, Josef Pospichal: Rack railway locomotives from Floridsdorf , bahnmedien.at, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-9503304-0-3 .

Web links

• Anton Wohler: Abbot, Carl Roman. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Arnold Keller:  Abbot, Roman. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 26 ( digitized version ).