Ernst Meili (physicist)

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Ernst Meili (born September 29, 1913 in Zurich , entitled to live there ; † August 13, 2006 in Küsnacht ZH ) was a Swiss physicist and entrepreneur .

Meili was a developer of ionization smoke detectors and made Cerberus AG one of the world's leading companies in the field of fire alarm systems .

Life

Ernst Meili's parents were Heinrich Meili (1869–1956) and Elise Meili, née Käser (1880–1946). The family lived in modest circumstances. Ernst Meili grew up as the youngest of three brothers and attended primary and secondary school in Zurich . He then graduated from high school with a high school diploma in 1932. This was followed by studies at the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the ETH Zurich , which he graduated in 1937 as a physicist at the newly established Department of Technical Physics. Then he became Fritz Fischer's assistant for a year . At that time he was not yet able to work on a dissertation as part of a paid assistant job at Fritz Fischer. Instead, he joined Telefunken AG in Zurich, followed by a job for the young company Hofrela AG. During the Second World War, he joined the company Cerberus GmbH, which was founded by Walter Jäger, a fellow student of Fritz Fischer, in the former Hotel Bristol in Bad Ragaz in 1941 as technical director and co-owner . In addition to his professional activity, he continued his studies at the ETHZ in 1942. Because of his military service as an officer in the Swiss militia army and his dissertation, he had to interrupt some of his work at Cerberus. With the dissertation on the characteristics of the Townsend discharge and its influence by irradiating the cathode , he received his doctorate in 1945 under Franz Tank . This work was directly related to an essential element of ionization fire detectors ( glow relay , a triode with a cold cathode), which the Cerberus company was developing. Teething troubles with the new fire alarms and a bunch of other products developed in parallel led to a financial bottleneck for the still young company with its 25 employees. In 1944, Elektrowatt AG in Zurich was won as a financier and new majority shareholder . After completing his studies, Meili took over the overall management of the Cerberus company in 1946, after company founder Walter Jäger had to relinquish management due to a reorganization that had become necessary. The development of fire alarms with ionization tubes took place through further development of the products F1 through F2, until the breakthrough came with the F3 series from 1951. For marketing purposes, Cerberus had to enter into agency agreements with suitable companies in different countries.

In order to be able to satisfy the increasing demand, the company Cerberus AG built a new factory in 1958 in Männedorf , Zurich. The company headquarters was also moved there. To make it easier for employees to move, affordable apartments were provided by a social building cooperative. At least in Switzerland, Meili was a pioneer in employee profit sharing, which he introduced in 1961. From 1960 Meili was a minority shareholder alongside Elektrowatt. When the replacement of electron tubes by transistors became apparent, Meili had transistorized fire alarms developed, which went into production from 1967.

Until his age-related resignation as delegate of the Board of Directors at the end of 1978, Meili was the linchpin of the Cerberus company. Hugo Tschirky became his successor in the management . When Meili resigned, the company had over 1,000 employees. Meili remained on the board of directors and adviser to Cerberus AG, which had installed around 5 million Cerberus ionization fire alarms worldwide, 1.5 million of them in Japan.

The Cerberus company was integrated into Siemens Building Systems in 1998.

He was married to Anne-Marie, nee de Quervain, since 1951 and had three sons, who, as the Meili brothers, brought their father's important inheritance to the company Datuma AG.

further activities

  • 1970: Co-founder of the European Association of Electronic Fire Protection and Security Industry (EURALARM)
  • 1972 to 1978: President of the Association of Swiss Manufacturers of Fire Alarm Systems (VSHB)
  • Colonel of the transmission troops in the Swiss Army.

Publications

  • Ionization fire alarms . Special edition SEV Bulletin No. 23/1952
  • My life with Cerberus . Achieved and unreached, Stäfa, 1985

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b What happened to the Cerberus? Tagesanzeiger, June 7, 2010, accessed August 7, 2020.
  2. ↑ Hans J. Tobler: Ionization fire alarms: Technical and economic importance . (PDF) In: Bulletin SEV / VSE . No. 23/06, 2006, pp. 13-15.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ernst Meili: My life with Cerberus. Achieved and unreached. Buchdruckerei Stäfa AG, 1985
  4. ↑ Ernst Meili: About the characteristics of the Townsend discharge and their influence by irradiating the cathode. Dissertation, Birkhäuser, Basel 1945, hdl : 20.500.11850 / 135426 .
  5. ↑ a b Werner Schefer: The thousandfold switching amplifier. bulletin.ch, April 4, 2017, accessed on August 7, 2020.
  6. ↑ Dr. Ernst Meili at the age of 60. NZZ of October 2, 1973, p. 24, accessed on August 7, 2020.
  7. ↑ Personal details : Cerberus AG. NZZ from January 25, 1979, p. 15, accessed on August 7, 2020.
  8. ↑ da.tu.ma. Datuma website, accessed on August 9, 2020
  9. ↑ Kuesnachter Jahrheft 2007. Obituaries: Ernst Meili .
personal data
SURNAME Meili, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss physicist and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 2006
Place of death Küsnacht ZH