Heinrich Stefan Peschka

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinrich Stefan Peschka (born July 2, 1886 in Vienna ; † September 21, 1937 , ibid) was an Austrian inventor and self-taught . Many ideas are known from patents and diary entries in which he described trend-setting findings, but mostly failed to implement them correctly.

Life

After compulsory schooling was over , he set up an electromechanical workshop in the courtyard building of his father's house, who was a general merchant. This also financed his equipment and experiments from the profit.

Heinrich Stefan Peschka patented a process on August 19, 1913 that was supposed to enable both sound and color film recordings. The sound recording should work according to the - at that time not yet known - optical sound process : A membrane ( microphone ) conducts the sound signals via a secondary coil . This generates an induction current , which in turn excites a light barrier flap, which allows more or less light to fall on the recording tube connected to the film in the rhythm of the noise. This principle is known today as the intensity method.

A selenium cell was to be used to reproduce the photographed sound signal , which turned the light fluctuations into electrical currents. Since around 1913 there were no amplification options, for example using electron tubes , these weak signals could only be monitored with headphones, which limited the audience.

Peschka had given his invention too little thought to be of practical use for sound film recordings. According to his own statements, he had his patents - in which he described principles that were ultimately also discovered by other researchers and led to the sound film - without any prior knowledge of other researchers, results or any similar knowledge from books or the like from magazines, without any help or aid from second party [...] registered.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Formann: Austrian pioneers of cinematography. Bergland Verlag, Vienna 1966, p. 53

literature

personal data
SURNAME Peschka, Heinrich Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian pioneer of film technology
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1937
Place of death Vienna