Franz von Rziha

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sketch of the tunnel armor according to the system of Franz von Rziha, Fichtelgebirgsbahn

Franz von Rziha (pron. Rschi-), also Franz Ržiha (born March 28, 1831 in Hainspach ( Lipová u Šluknova ) in Bohemia ; † June 22, 1897 in Maria Schutz (Lower Austria)) was a railway and tunnel builder and inventor.

Life

He studied technology at the Polytechnic in Prague and from 1851 worked on the construction of the Semmering Railway and then the railway over the Karst . Because of this experience he was called in 1856 to build the Wilhelmsbahn to Prussian Silesia, in particular to build the tunnel at Czernitz near Ratibor . In 1857 he carried out several tunnels on the Ruhr-Siegbahn with Knäbel . In 1861 he built the most difficult part of the railway from Kreiensen to Holzminden , drafted the plans for the Luhetal Viaduct built in 1865 near Greene, and for the first time used the iron tunneling system he had developed instead of the usual wooden frames in the tunnels to the railway tunnels near Ippensen and on Naensener Tunnel successfully started in 1862. 1864 published a work on the tunneling method in iron that he had designed. Together with his father Eduard Rziha, a genius officer in the Austrian army, he received the cash prize donated at the meeting of Austrian miners and smelterers in 1864 for their joint work “On the theory of mining explosives”. In 1866 he entered the civil service of the Duchy of Braunschweig , laid out and built several railway lines and, as chief miner, managed the fiscal lignite mines until they could be operated economically enough to be sold in 1870.

In 1870 he ran around 500 km of railway lines in Bohemia and Saxony and built four Bohemian railways as an entrepreneur between 1871 and 1874. An offer he submitted in 1872 to build the Gotthard tunnel was not an offer, but a pure expression of interest, and was therefore not taken into account. In 1874 he was appointed chief engineer to the Austrian Ministry of Commerce. From 1878 until his death Rziha taught as a professor for railway and tunnel construction at the Technical University in Vienna , in the academic year 1887/88 he was also the rector of the university. In addition, he was often active as an expert and consultant, for example during the construction of the Arlberg tunnel .

He was also involved in the forerunner institution of the Austrian Federal Monuments Office and made a name for himself in researching medieval stonemason's marks by trying to decipher their long-hidden secret. He developed a theory according to which all stonemason's marks since antiquity have been developed from one of 14 different geometric basic keys. However, this theory is considered very unlikely in today's research. Nevertheless, new stonemason's marks are now being designed in many places using his keys.

In 1883 he was raised to the nobility as Franz Ritter von Rziha.

Fonts

  • The new tunneling method in iron. Berlin 1864.
  • Textbook of the entire art of tunneling. 2 volumes. Berlin 1867-72. (2nd edition 1874, reprint Essen 1986/87)
  • The English cutting company. Berlin 1872.
  • The importance of the port of Trieste for Austria. 2nd edition, Vienna 1873. (also Italian and English)
  • Construction contract for the St. Gotthard tunnel. Vienna 1875.
  • The mechanical performance of the drilling in Mont Cenis and St. Gotthard. In: Writings of the association for the dissemination of scientific knowledge in Vienna. Vienna 1876, pp. 726-748.
  • Railway substructure and superstructure. 3 volumes. Vienna 1876/77.
  • The former Judith Bridge in Prague, the first large engineering works in Bohemia. Self-published, Prague 1878.
  • Experiences with iron tunnel armor. Vienna 1882.
  • Studies on stone carving marks. Vienna 1883. (Reprint: Berlin 1989; also in French translation: Études sur les Marques des Tailleurs De Pierres )
  • The construction of the Arlberg tunnel. Vienna 1885.
  • Breaking weather. A popular representation of this day mining issue. A lecture given in the Association for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge in Vienna on February 10, 1886. Self-published by the Association, Vienna 1886.
  • The scientific share of Austria in railway construction. Vienna 1887.
  • The drilling strength of rocks. 1888.
  • The problem of Vienna's water supply. 1894.
  • The dynamite: and its cultural-historical and technical significance. 1896.
 Kramny: List of articles and authors from the communications of the kk Central Commission for the research and preservation of architectural monuments . 1856-1906, p. 26.

literature

Web links

Commons : Franz von Rziha  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ March 18 is sometimes mentioned in the literature
  2. ↑ E. Rziha: About the theory of mining explosive work. In: Berg- und Hüttenmännisches Jahrbuch. (BHJb) 16, Vienna 1867, pp. 1–162.
  3. ↑ 200 years TU Wien - TU personalities - Franz von Ržiha. January 21, 2015, accessed August 24, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Rziha, Franz von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ržiha, Franz von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian railway and tunnel builder, inventor
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Hainspach
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1897
Place of death Maria protection