Gianni Andreoli

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Gianni Andreoli (born June 25, 1919 in Mendrisio ; † December 18, 1971 in Lucerne ) was a Swiss engineer and inventor.

Life

After attending the schools in Mendrisio and Lugano, Andreoli completed a degree in mechanical engineering from 1939 to 1945 at the ETH Zurich with two additional semesters in aerodynamics. During his studies he also did his active service as an officer and military pilot in the Air Force. From 1945 to 1948 he worked at the Emmen aircraft factory , where he was involved in the development of the N20 jet aircraft . At the same time, he began to specialize in projection technology and subsequently worked mostly as a freelance engineer and inventor in this field. His biggest and most important invention was sensational, the Spitlight cloud projector , which entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1985 as the world's largest projector. However, despite numerous patents, he hardly succeeded in achieving greater commercial success with his unconventional ideas.

Work (selection)

Exhibition tower Lucerne 1952

Motors P.10 - P.15

Small star and boxer motors with a power of 1 to 3 HP, u. a. for model airplanes, in the period from 1937 to 1945, one of which was exhibited at the Swiss National Exhibition in 1939 , manufactured by Farner, Moutier.

Epistar P100N

Small, light and powerful episcope , manufactured in series at Mecaplex, Grenchen (1946).

P.300

Advertising projector manufactured on the occasion of the 1952 World Photography Exhibition in Lucerne , which was mounted on the exhibition tower so that it could be rotated 360 degrees. During a demonstration, Andreoli fell from the upper terrace to the lower terrace and was seriously injured. During his stay in hospital, he immediately began to develop a projector that was several times larger and more powerful.

P.300.S Spitlight

P.300.S Spitlight in front of the Enter Museum, Solothurn

The successor to the P.300 was manufactured in 1954–1955 for around CHF 320,000 and was first used at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics . The 5-ton projector, packed in a futuristic aluminum housing, was mounted on an elongated Bedford 5010 truck, in the trailer of which there were generators for an independent energy supply. An arc lamp with special carbon fuel rods generated a light intensity of 375,000 lumens. This allowed a metal slide ( gobo ) to be projected onto mountain walls or clouds for approx. 40 seconds each . A drum mechanism provided the change of images and animation effects. For a distance of up to 6 km, image widths of up to 1 km could be displayed. The cooling of the 5000–7000 degree hot light source and the optics were particular challenges for these extreme demands. An automatic change for the coal fuel rods, which were used up after only approx. 15 minutes, was built in; a bogie and deflection mirror enabled projections in all directions. A team of 4 people was required to operate. - After the Olympics and a few other uses, the Spitlight was protected from access by dubious investors in a disused mine in Italy for a while, then stored in various locations in Switzerland until Andreoli's widow gave it to Technorama in Winterthur in 1983 , where he gave it In 1986 it was repaired again and could be seen until 2005. After that, a private association took care of research, maintenance and commercial restart of the giant projector for a few years. In 2019 he was finally taken over by the Enter Museum for computers and entertainment electronics in Solothurn .

Mitralux P120S, P122, P125

Various types of portable headlights for the army, police and fire brigade with ranges from 10 to 300 m, which could also be used as portable slide projectors, manufactured by Innoram, Caslano, then in America (1956–1957).

Super nova

Small projector for advertising slides up to 120 m wide (unfinished prototype, 1970).

estate

Gianni Andreoli's estate is listed in the Helveticat online catalog of the Swiss National Library . Since 2019 it is no longer in the Technorama in Winterthur but in the Museum Enter in Solothurn.

literature

  • Settele, Claude, Coca-Cola in the clouds, in: Luzerner Neuste Nachrichten, Magazin, 02.26.83, pp. 4–8
  • Stickel, Bernhard, The Cloud Projector SPITLIGHT P300S (magazine / issue currently still unclear), pp. 10–13
  • Stickel, Bernhard, Gianni Andreoli. 1919–1971 (magazine / volume currently unclear), pp. 14–15
  • Gysi, Martin, Winterthur section saves world record projectors, in: Swiss Technical Journal (STV), 1986, No. 2 (January 29), pp. 9-14

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gianni Andreoli's estate. In: Helveticat. Swiss National Library, accessed on June 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Andreoli, Gianni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss engineer and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Mendrisio
DATE OF DEATH 18th December 1971
Place of death Lucerne