Franz Reuleaux

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Franz Reuleaux 1877

Franz Reuleaux [ røˈloː ] (born September 30, 1829 in Eschweiler - pump ; † August 20, 1905 in Charlottenburg near Berlin ) was a German engineer who was active in many areas of mechanical engineering . In particular, he tried to turn the engineering science of mechanical engineering into an exact science .

Beginnings

Franz Reuleaux was born on September 30, 1829 in Eschweiler-Pump. He came from a respected and long-established family of technicians. His father was a partner in the Englerth , Reuleaux & Dobbs machine factory (now EBV's Ermag plant ), and both grandfathers also worked in technical professions. His older brother was Carl Reuleaux . In 1833 Franz Reuleaux moved with his mother to Koblenz, because his father had suddenly died. There he also began an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering in the iron foundry and machine factory in Zilken.

In 1846 he began to work in his father's business, which his uncle had taken over. From 1850 to 1852 he studied mechanical engineering at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic under Ferdinand Redtenbacher (1809–1863) and became a member of the Teutonia fraternity . The training in Karlsruhe was based on the Paris École polytechnique , the then trend-setting university in the field of technology. It must also have been Redtenbacher who persuaded Reuleaux to study philosophy, which he then pursued in Bonn and Berlin together with mathematics and mechanics. In 1854 he worked as a freelance engineer in the Baehrens mechanical engineering factory in Cologne.

In Zurich

The first chapter of the textbook Construction Theory for Mechanical Engineering , which Reuleaux wrote together with Carl Ludwig Moll , was preprinted as early as 1853. Due to its clear structure and the exemplary drawings, it met with a great response. The last chapter of the work even looked at the mechanical engineering style. Although the thoughts on this were rooted in historicism , they pursued new ideas that were not adopted by architecture.

Reuleaux's activities were also noticed by Gustav Zeuner , who brought him to the mechanical-technical department of the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich in 1856 as a full professor . The principle of the unity of teaching and research, which had a high priority in Zurich, was very accommodating to Reuleaux. That way he could quickly inspire his students. The textbook Der Construkteur , which was considered a standard work for three decades, was also created during the Zurich period . It appeared from 1861 in five editions and four languages. Reuleaux saw the machine elements as an independent subject and advocated as many normal constructions as possible.

In Berlin

In 1864 Reuleaux accepted a call from the Royal Industrial Institute in Berlin . At the same time he became a member of the technical deputation for the trade, and four years later director of the school that was now called the Royal Trade Academy. After it merged with the Berlin Building Academy to form the TH Charlottenburg in 1879, he initially headed the mechanical engineering department before becoming rector in 1890/91. His students included Carl von Linde , Trajan Rittershaus , Hermann Rietschel and Otto Lilienthal .

Reuleaux introduced the terms composite , forced running (for kinematics ) and interchangeable construction in mechanical engineering . For the latter, he was very committed.

During this time he dealt with kinematics, which at the time was still underdeveloped, to which he gave a decisive impetus with his work Theoretical Kinematics , published in 1875 . Reuleaux also carried out a general systematization of the moving mechanisms there ( Reuleaux's gear system ). This work found many admirers, but also numerous opponents: In the 1880s and 1890s, many mechanical engineering laboratories were set up, all of which worked empirically and were not based on complicated calculations.

A determined advocate of this direction came in 1888 with Alois Riedler (1850-1936) at the TH Charlottenburg, who acted as an opponent of Reuleaux and even ensured that Reuleaux in 1896 ended his teaching activities. Reuleaux continued to pursue his ideas. A second volume of his Kinematik appeared in 1900, the third should also follow, but could no longer be completed. With the advent of computers in the 1940s, theoretical kinematics gained in importance.

The grave of Reuleaux in the Old Twelve Apostles Cemetery in Berlin-Schöneberg

Franz Reuleaux died in 1905 at the age of 75 in Charlottenburg near Berlin. He found his final resting place in the Evangelical Old Twelve Apostles Cemetery in Schöneberg (field 302–001A-034/035). By decision of the Berlin Senate , the last resting place of Franz Reuleaux has been dedicated as an honorary grave of the State of Berlin since 1992 . The dedication was extended in 2016 by the usual period of twenty years.

As a judge

It was a special honor for Reuleaux to be appointed judge at the world exhibitions of 1862 (London) , 1867 (London) , 1873 (Vienna) , 1873 (Dublin) and 1876 ​​(Philadelphia) . In his letters from Philadelphia, which caused a sensation due to their openness, he drew attention to grievances within the German economy. His saying German goods are cheap and bad initially met with a wave of outrage, but the demand for competition through quality was then heard. At the world exhibitions in Sydney (1879) and Melbourne (1881) , Franz Reuleaux headed the German department as Reich Commissioner.

As a judge, Reuleaux helped Otto and Langen's gas machine gain its first public recognition, ensuring that it received the gold medal in Paris, and he also helped with the patenting of this invention. He also advocated the Mannesmann cross-rolling process, with which seamless tubes could be produced. He also supported the young electrical engineering.

further activities

In the 1880s, Reuleaux played a key role in the creation of a uniform patent law . He also promoted the arts and crafts, so he dealt intensively with its reorganization and established important principles and guidelines for this. His literary streak was evident in travelogues and poetry translations - he even spoke Arabic and Sanskrit . After all, he was also one of the co-founders of a technical philosophy , although he was accused of eclecticism .

Honors

Memorial stone for Reuleaux on the campus of the TU Berlin (formerly TH Charlottenburg)
The original memorial (1913)

Reuleaux was an honorary member of numerous domestic and foreign societies. The Université de Montréal and the TH Karlsruhe awarded him an honorary doctorate . In front of the TH Charlottenburg, seven years after his death, a memorial stone, created according to the design of the sculptor Johannes Röttger , with the following inscription: Franz Reuleaux - the researcher and teacher, founder of the connection between technology and science and life. Today it is located on the central campus of the TU Berlin .

His hometown Eschweiler made him an honorary citizen and named a street after him.

The Reuleaux triangle is named after him.

Familiar

Reuleaux was married to Charlotte Wilhelmine Friederike Overbeck (1829–1882), granddaughter of the Lübeck mayor, canon, senator and poet Christian Adolph Overbeck (1755–1821). His brother-in-law was the archaeologist Johannes Overbeck , his Schwipp-brother-in-law was the anthropologist and personal physician of the hypochondriac Alfred Krupp, Emil Ludwig Schmidt .

Reuleaux's daughter Cilla (born August 18, 1857) worked as a writer under the pseudonym O. Verbeck; she married Max Goldstein († 1884) and in 1899 the painter Hanns Fechner

Reuleaux's grandchildren include the engineer and industrial manager Otto Reuleaux and the civil engineer and transport scientist Erich Reuleaux .

literature

  • Wolfhard Weber :  Franz Reuleaux. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 453 f. ( Digitized version ). (Catalog raisonné and further evidence)
  • Franz Reuleaux: Letters from Philadelphia . Edition reviewed by the author and increased by additions. F. Vieweg and son, Braunschweig 1877.
  • Franz Reuleaux † . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, Volume 25, No. 69 (August 26, 1905), pp. 434–435
  • Hans-Joachim Braun: Cheap and Bad? Franz Reuleaux 'criticism of German industry and his economic policy proposals 1876/77 . In: Kultur und Technik, 9th year 1985, issue 2, pp. 106–114; Digitized version (PDF).
  • Wilhelm Hartmann : Franz Reuleaux . In: Journal for German Engineers 49 (1905), pp. 1481 and 57 (1913), pp. 162-169
  • Bragastini Roberto Contributo per una interpretazione filosofica dell'opera di Franz Reuleaux , Università degli Studi di Milano (Milan, 2003)
  • Moon Francis "Franz Reuleaux: Contributions to 19th C. Kinematics and Theory of Machines"
  • Francis C. Moon: The Machines of Leonardo Da Vinci and Franz Reuleaux, Kinematics of Machines from the Renaissance to the 20th Century . Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4020-5598-0 .
  • Karl-Eugen Kurrer : The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium , Berlin: Ernst & Sohn 2018, p. 492f. and p. 498f. ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9 .

Web links

Commons : Franz Reuleaux  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Franz Reuleaux  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus W. Usemann: Development of heating and ventilation technology for science: Hermann Rietschel - life and work . Oldenbourg, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-486-26138-X , p. 126 f .
  2. ↑ The leaving certificate received lists the subjects taught by Reuleaux: machine elements, design of the same, kinematics, regulators: digitized in the archive of the Otto Lilienthal Museum
  3. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 756.
  4. ↑ Honorary graves of the State of Berlin (as of November 2018) . (PDF, 413 kB) Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, p. 71; accessed on March 15, 2019. Recognition and further preservation of graves as honorary graves of the State of Berlin . (PDF, 205 kB). Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 17/3105 of July 13, 2016, p. 1 and Annex 2, p. 13; accessed on March 15, 2019.
  5. ↑ See Reuleaux (1877), (1985)
  6. ↑ Röttger, Johannes . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 28 : Ramsden-Rosa . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1934, p. 506 .
  7. ^ Fechner, Cilla in: Franz Brümmer : Lexicon of German poets and prose writers from the 19th century to the present . 6th edition Leipzig 1913, vol. 8, p. 191 f., Digitized version of the German Text Archive
personal data
SURNAME Reuleaux, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH Eschweiler - pump
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 1905
Place of death Berlin-Charlottenburg