Henning Calvör

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Henning Calvör (* 1686 in Silstedt ; † July 10, 1766 in Altenau ) was a German theologian, teacher and scholar in the field of mining technology and mechanics. He mainly worked in Clausthal in the Harz Mountains and is considered the spiritual father of the mountain school there, which in turn forms the nucleus for today's Clausthal University of Technology .

Life

Henning Calvör was born in Silstedt near Wernigerode in October 1686 as the son of the tailor Tobias Calvör (whose father and grandfather were the first schoolmasters of Silstedt) and Maria Anna Hurdelhey. (The primary school in Silstedt is named after him in honor of Calvör.)

Although from a humble background, the hardworking and clever boy enjoyed an upscale education with the support of the related superintendent Caspar Calvör : He attended the Latin school in Wernigerode, the Andreanum in Hildesheim and the school in Zellerfeld . With the support of Count Ernst and Christian Ernst zu Stolberg , he visited the university twice and studied theology. After completing his studies, he came back to Clausthal-Zellerfeld in 1713 as a teacher at the Lyceum , whose Ephorus the o. G. Caspar Calvör was. In 1716 Henning Calvör became the vice-principal and in 1725 the principal of this school. On July 13, 1717, he married Catharina Maria Corvinus, daughter of the Silstedt pastor Friedrich Corvinus, in Silstedt. With his wife he fathered 6 children.

One focus of the tasks of the Clausthaler Lyceum was to give the prospective mining and smelter officials of the Harz ore mining, who had only received practical training, also a mathematical and scientific training with special consideration of the mining industry. As a teacher at the Lyceum, Calvör first taught these students languages ​​and mathematics, and later also mechanics and mechanical engineering:

"So if you know that my duty in my school office, which I held at Clausthal until my 17th year, was, in addition to foreign languages, teaching young people in mathematical sciences, in which I found great pleasure from my youth, which gave me the opportunity to make the local machine system known to me in this and that piece in order to show my scholars the application of the theoretical teachings "

- Henning Calvör in the preliminary report on his "Description of Mechanical Engineering ...", p. 9

Although Calvör originally had no technical, but theological training, over time he acquired such specialist knowledge in the above-mentioned. technical areas that he became a recognized expert and wrote numerous technical publications.

Finally, Calvör suggests founding a separate technical school for mining:

“According to my little and little judgment, the ... aimed purpose would still be more likely to be preserved if, in particular, a mathematical school were set up, in which the most capable and brightest minds of those who want to become miners and carpenters, a few hours in their youth Week, which you can break off from your already started work, in the reasons of geometry, trigonometry, static and mechanics, also aerostatic, hydrostatic and hydraulic, as sciences, since the physics and laws of nature are applied by maths, both of which all who would be taught Arithmetic in advance ... "

- Henning Calvör in the preliminary report on his "Description of Mechanical Engineering ...", p. 7

Even if it took some time after that, this food for thought is generally considered to point the way for the later separation of the mining and metallurgy school branch and the founding of the Clausthal mountain school, today's Technical University.

Henning Calvör also improved and developed mining tools and machines himself, the most famous of which is probably the Harz weather drum for ventilating pits, which operated on the principle of a water jet pump.

In 1729 Calvör finally resigned his school post after a falling out with the city council of Clausthal, returned to his theological training and accepted a pastor's position in the Sankt Nikolai Church in nearby Altenau , where he died in 1766 . At his last place of work, in addition to his parish activities, he also continued his technical interests and in 1763 completed his most famous work “Description of mechanical engineering ...” (Latin “Acta Historico-Chronologico-Mechanica circa metallurgiam in Hercynia superiori” ) and its continuation in 1765, “Historische Message from the lower and entire Upper Harz mines ” . (see "Writings"). The engravings in these fonts were made by his son Caspar.

Fonts

Extract from Calvör's main work
  • Acta Historico-Chronologico-Mechanica circa metallurgiam in Hercynia superiori. Or historical-chronological information and theoretical and practical description of mechanical engineering , and the auxiliaries in mining on the Oberharze, in particular the machinery and auxiliaries by which mining is promoted, such as mine sheaths, shaft and pit construction, of Drilling and shooting, of the machines and devices to bring the mined ore to light, of the machines by which the ore is turned into sand, or of the puching works and the puching work, of the machines in the smelter, of the ores silver, Bley To smelt solder and copper, and from the entire smelter work one after the other, from the mint machines to burn the silver finely and to coin it into money. In the publishing house of the Princely Waysenhaus bookstore, Braunschweig 1763. (Google books: 1st part , 2nd part )
  • Historical news of the lower and entire Upper Harz mines, in general, also different ones belonging to the latter, in particular, first appearance, their opening and resumption, as well as of the resumed nature of the Upper Harz mines from the first times to End of the year 1760. (with an appendix of other special news and some still unprinted documents, with diligent reference to the recently published Acta Historico-Chronologico-Mechanica circa Metallurgiam in Hercynia Superiori), Im Verlag der Fürstlichen Waysenhausbuchhandlung, Braunschweig 1765. ( Google books )

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Royal Mining Academy in Clausthal. Its history and its new buildings , 1907 GBV (PDF; 16.8 MB)
  2. ^ Primary school "Henning Calvör" in the Silstedt district wernigerode.de
  3. ^ Friedrich Günther: To the prehistory of the Königl. Bergakademie zu Clausthal , in: Berg- u. Hüttenmännische Zeitung 1899 GBV (PDF; 1.4 MB)
  4. ↑ Tools for Mining: Techniques and Processes for Small Scale Mining (GTZ, 1993, 538 p.), Technical Chapter 3: Ventilation (with illustration of the Harz weather drums) ( Memento from December 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ www.antiquariaatjunk.com ( Memento of March 13, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ The history of mine ventilation ( memento of October 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Medal for the 300th birthday of Henning Calvör ( Memento from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Calvör, Henning
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mining engineer and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH around 1685
PLACE OF BIRTH Silstedt
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1766
Place of death Altenau