Ernst Alban

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Ernst Alban

Johann Ernst Heinrich Alban (born February 7, 1791 in Neubrandenburg ; † June 13, 1856 in Plau am See ) was a German surgeon and ophthalmologist . He became famous as a pioneer of steam engine construction .

Life

Ernst Alban was the eldest of three children of the Protestant theologian and pastor Samuel Alban (1762–1834) and his wife (Elisabeth) Sofia Juliane, née. Spengler (1761-1809). He probably attended the scholarly school in his hometown, in which the ancient languages ​​(Latin, Greek) were the focus. Alban intended to become a mechanical engineer , but had to give up these plans at the insistence of his father, who wanted his son to become a scholar. In 1810 he began studying theology at the University of Rostock . After a year and a half he switched to medicine , on which he was able to agree with his father. He continued his studies in 1812 at the new Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin and in 1813 at the University of Greifswald . In the same year he became a member of the Corps Pomerania Greifswald . In 1814 he was promoted to Dr. med. PhD . Trained by Karl Gustav Himly at the Georg-August University in Göttingen , he became a surgeon and ophthalmologist in 1815 .

At Easter 1815 Ernst Alban opened a doctor's practice in Rostock . At the same time he taught anatomy , physiology and ophthalmology as a private lecturer at the University of Rostock . He became widely known for his successful cataract operations . In 1825 he finally ended his career as a doctor and only worked as a mechanical engineer.

Ernst Alban was married three times and in these marriages the father of six children, including his son of the same name Ernst Alban (1821-1888), who became known as a district engineer, cartographer and surveyor in Schwerin.

"It is my conviction that our human destiny is
not to be happy without regard to others, quite selfishly,
but to seek happiness in efforts and their successes
to make others happy
by being as useful as possible to them."

- Ernst Alban

Technical commitment

Ernst Alban high-pressure steam engine with a swinging cylinder

Already during his studies Alban took physics and mechanics lectures, in 1815 he built a model steam engine: Alban knew the technical literature, especially from Richard Trevithick on high pressure steam engines, and then thought of 50 to 80 atmospheres working pressure. Such high pressures were a very daring idea at the time: Both Trevithick in England and Oliver Evans in the USA were limited to 5 to 7 atmospheres and were already struggling with major problems. For his first model, Alban used a tin hot water bottle as a steam boiler and two wound syringes as a steam cylinder. This created a high-pressure machine that actually worked.

As the steam pressure increased, so did the steam temperature and thus the temperature gradient that caused a steam engine to run. This in turn improved the efficiency and thus the economy tremendously. The findings of the engraver Jacob Perkins from Philadelphia led to pressures of 35 at in England from 1819 onwards, which motivated Alban to clearly exceed 40 at. He wanted to generate steam using a special process that he had patented through a London merchant. Water splashed into double-walled, indirectly heated containers suspended in flue gas. The heat was transferred via a metal bath made of 2 parts lead and 1 part tin from the unpressurized outer container to 8 vertical immersion tubes connected at the top inside. The outer container measured 4 feet in length, 3½ feet in height and 3 inches in width, and the pressure pipes 1 inch in diameter and 3 feet in length. There were several elements of this, whereby the feed water injection and the combustion air supply could be varied (with a flap) in order to be able to adapt the steam generation to requirements. The patent was granted on May 14, 1825 and published in the Repertory of Patent-Invention the following February . However, the latter was done with critical comments, as this indirect heat generation seemed impractical: Mud or salt could not be removed here, and the knocking, which is common with large water boilers, did not work. In addition, around 1830 it was neither possible to manufacture the construction with sufficient precision, nor to regulate its operation precisely enough.

London

During his time as a doctor in Rostock, Alban met the Mecklenburg consul in London, which led to a stay in England beginning in June 1825. Until 1827 he worked in several factories and was able to see the most diverse steam engine designs and their operation. He also had his construction built by widely recognized British craftsmanship. In Alban's absence during a stay in his home country, his commercial business partners signed a contract for the delivery of a 16 hp steam engine to the English government without his knowledge. Alban, knowing that his invention was not yet ready for practice, got into a heated argument with his financiers, which ended with his leaving England completely penniless. He was only able to take back a wealth of technical experience from the motherland of industry.

Own factories

ALBAN steamer , built in Plau in 1845

Back in Germany, Alban moved to Stubbendorf in 1827 . There he conducted scientific studies and wrote for Dingler's Polytechnic Journal . In 1829 he bought a small estate in Klein-Wehnendorf and founded the first mechanical engineering company in Mecklenburg. Like Richard Hartmann in Saxony or August Borsig in Berlin, he began as a craft business. Production began with agricultural implements and machines of our own design, including a particularly successful large seed drill that was sold many times from 1831. Steam engines, on the other hand, were initially only built as a model or for personal use in his small factory, which employed between 12 and 20 workers. Since the series production of machines required an associated iron foundry, Alban gave up his company in 1836 to become the technical director of a newly founded mechanical engineering company with an iron foundry in Güstrow . The company sold well. One of the few steam engines built there with an output of 30 hp was sold to the grand ducal cloth factory in Plau am See in 1840 and installed there under Alban's guidance. The city fathers, visibly taken with the new technology, offered Alban a plot of land to build his own mechanical engineering factory. Ferdinand Klitzing (1807–1883), administrator of the grand ducal office of Plau and brother-in-law of Alban since 1835, certainly made a significant contribution to this. Even the convenient location on the Elde as a transport route for raw materials and products did not allow Alban to think twice, despite the low financial resources of only 20,000 marks. In 1840 he re-founded his own factory in Plau, which was expanded to include an iron foundry in 1842. Up to 60 workers built steam boilers and steam engines here, as well as textile and agricultural machines and water wheels . Everyday devices up to banisters and grave crosses completed the product range. In 1845, after only a short construction period, the first passenger steamer on the Mecklenburg inland lakes, ALBAN, was launched, naturally equipped with a specially designed steam engine.

Alban sat in his study until the late hours of the evening in order to advance the core of his engineering activity, the development of the high-pressure steam engine. Based on the experience gained, he initially limited himself to a lower vapor pressure of around 8 at.

Alban's only surviving high-pressure steam engine from 1840 from the Plauer cloth factory that burned down in 1905 is now in the Deutsches Museum in Munich .

plant

Alban's work on high pressure steam was internationally recognized. They were an important step in the development of new machines in the middle of the 19th century. An explosion-proof kettle was crucial. This condition required a narrow-tube boiler, a battery of tubes that were connected to one another and to an upper boiler at the front. Alban published details on this in 1843 in his main work Die High Pressure Steam Engine (Rostock and Schwerin, Stiller, 1843. XII, 539 p. 8 ° and Taff.), The English translation of which was published that same year. It served as a textbook in technical schools and was published in several editions in the USA. A planned sequel to which he attached even greater importance could not appear in book form.

Publications in Dingler's Polytechnic Journal
Via a very simple u. expedient. Construction of the steam mills. Vol. 108 (3rd row Vol. 8), 1848, pp. 81 ff., 161 ff.
The Plauer steamship. Vol. 109 (3rd row Vol. 9), 1848, pp. 1 ff., 81 ff., 161 ff., 241 ff., 321 ff., 401 ff.
Remarks on high-pressure steam engines, my new observations, etc. Vol. 111 (3rd series, Vol. II), 1849, issue 1-3. Vol. 112 (3rd row, Vol. 12), 1849, volume 1-4 Vol. 113 (3rd row, Vol. 13), 1849, H. 3-6.
Messages from my life and Working as a machine builder. Vol. 115 (3rd row, Vol. 15), 1850, p. 321 ff., 401 ff. Vol. 116, 1850, p. 81 ff. Vol. 118, 1850, p. 1 ff., 161 ff. , 241 ff., 321 ff. (Only technical)

Honors

photos

  • Alban's grave in the Plauer cemetery

  • Alban's memorial in the Plauer cemetery

  • Department Dr. Alban, Plau Castle Museum

  • Model "swinging oars" (Alban)

  • Documentation of new shipbuilding (Alban)

  • Model of a new ship (Alban)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A visit to the Neubrandenburg School of Academics (Great City School), which is within sight of his parents' house, is close, but cannot be proven; Student lists from the period in question have not survived.
  2. ↑ See the entry of Ernst Alban's matriculation in the Rostock matriculation portal
  3. ^ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 53 , 50
  4. ↑ digitized at Google books

literature

  • William Löbe:  Alban, Ernst . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 175 f.
  • Manfred Schröter:  Alban, Ernst. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 121 ( digitized version ).
  • Conrad Matschoß: Great Engineers , Lehmann, Munich / Berlin 1937, DNB 575022604 .
  • Conrad Matschoss: Dr. Ernst Alban (= treatises and reports - Deutsches Museum , volume 12, volume 6). VDI, Berlin 1940, DNB 364987537
  • Michael Matthes: Technology between bourgeois idealism and the beginning of industrialization in Germany: Ernst Alban and the development of his high-pressure steam engine (= history of technology in individual representations , volume 43), VDI, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-18-150043-7 (dissertation University of Bochum, 318 pages ).
  • Peter Maubach: Dr. Ernst Alban. The life path of a Neubrandenburger from the well-known star engraver to the first machine builder in Mecklenburg (= series of publications of the regional museum Neubrandenburg , volume 22). Regional Museum, Neubrandenburg 1991 DNB 910924988 .
  • Christiane Steinert: A machine temple: the high-pressure steam engine from Dr. Ernst Alban as a monument , in: Culture & Technology, Technology from the Deutsches Museum. No. 4, Beck, Munich 1980, pp. 59-63 + 66, ISSN  0344-5690 , OCLC 907849626 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Alban, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alban, Johann Ernst Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Doctor and mechanical engineer
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH Neubrandenburg
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1856
Place of death Plau am See