Heinrich Zoelly

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Heinrich Zoelly (with his signature)
Test locomotive of the Swiss Federal Railways with a Zoelly steam turbine.

Heinrich Zoelly (born April 11, 1862 in Mexico City , † March 30, 1937 in Zurich ) was a Swiss engineer . He was best known for the further development of the steam turbine ( Zoelly turbine ) and the turbine-driven steam locomotive .

Live and act

Heinrich Zoelly was born in Mexico as the fifth child of the emigrant Franz Xaver Zoelly, originally from Klettgau , and was thus a Mexican citizen. The father ran a hat factory in Mexico City with his brother Johannes. When Heinrich was still a child, his father left the country with his family because of political unrest in Mexico, returned to Europe and settled in Switzerland. Here Heinrich attended primary school , the canton school and the Federal Polytechnic . When he made his mechanical engineering - diploma earned, he was only just 20 years old. After study trips to Mexico and Paris, Heinrich Zoelly returned to Switzerland in 1886. Two years later, Zoelly applied for naturalization in Fluntern and became a Swiss citizen. Heinrich Zoelly was married and had five children.

In 1886 Zoelly joined the Zurich machine works Escher, Wyss & Cie. The talented engineer quickly made a career for himself and became technical director at the age of only 26. In turn, he contributed to the flourishing of the company, which at the time manufactured various steam engines , water turbines , locomotives , traction engines and ships .

As the most important development, Zoelly advanced the construction of a multi-stage steam turbine . He initially derived the shape from water turbines . In collaboration with Professor Stodola , Zoelly developed a multi-stage, axial flow action turbine from this in 1903 . Despite the low steam pressure (11 bar) and low temperature (185 ° C), this achieved a remarkable output of 370 kW and a thermodynamic efficiency of 62%. The original of the first machine of this type is now in the Deutsches Museum . This turbine competed with other steam turbines developed around the same time in the world ( Parsons , Rateau , Lasche , Curtis , Laval , ...) and was sold worldwide through licenses.

As early as 1912 Zoelly received an honorary doctorate from the ETH Zurich, thanks in part to his services to turbine development .

Since Zoelly was convinced of the superiority of the steam turbine over the piston steam engine , Escher Wyss gave up the production of steam engines in 1913 and concentrated fully on the turbines. Zoelly's vision was to also use steam turbines to power steam locomotives , which traditionally worked with piston engines. Until he left the Escher-Wyss company , Zoelly devoted himself to the development of a steam turbine-driven locomotive, which he drove until it was operational (1926 Zoelly- SLM , later 1930 Krupp-Zoelly ). But since diesel and electric drives were increasingly displacing steam power as a locomotive drive, the superior condensing locomotive no longer prevailed.

Zoelly died in Zurich, his adopted home in 1937.

literature

  • Swiss pioneers in business and technology, Volume 19: Three Zurich pioneers: Paul Usteri (1853–1927) / Heinrich Zoelly (1862–1937) / Karl Bretscher (1885–1966) . Association for economic history studies. Zurich 1968.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. resume  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deutscheeisenbahn.de
  2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.electrosuisse.ch
  3. ↑ http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=214960 (English)
  4. ↑ http://www.deutsches-museum.de/sammlungen/maschinen/kraftmaschinen/dampfturbinen/gleichdruck-dampfturbine-escher-wyss-1903/
  5. ^ Photos of a 1912 Zoelly turbine manufactured under license by the Dutch company Stork (Dutch)
  6. ↑ http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/swissturb/swissturb.htm (English)
  7. ↑ http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/germturb/germturb.htm (English)
personal data
SURNAME Zoelly, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss engineer
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Mexico city
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 1937
Place of death Zurich