Jacob Christian Hansen Ellehammer
Jacob Christian Hansen Ellehammer (born June 14, 1871 in Bakkebølle in Sydsjælland , Denmark , † May 20, 1946 in Gentofte ) was a Danish aviation pioneer . On his father's side, he carried the family name Hansen, which he added in 1901 with the name Ellehammer from his mother's family, which is why the Danish spelling is Jacob Christian Hansen-Ellehammer.
Versatile talents
Ellehammer came from a family where invention and entrepreneurship were his role models. He grew up in Vålse Vig, a polder on the island of Falster that had been drained by his father. After an apprenticeship as a watchmaker and serving in the navy, he came to Copenhagen in 1893 and worked in various factories that manufactured electromechanical devices and typewriters. In 1898 he founded his own company under the name "Ellehammers mekaniske Etablissement". Initially, he dealt with the repair of typewriters. Then he patented a device called the "Kinematograf", similar to the "Kinetoskop" by Thomas Alva Edison . A few years after Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X- rays , he built a device that was set up in the panopticon and with which visitors could x-ray their own hands. He also produced a jukebox based on Edison's phonograph. His beer dispenser was sold internationally. In the early years of the 20th century, he patented several machines for automating the production of cigarettes.
Motorcycle as a mass product
Around 1902 Ellehammer began developing a motorcycle that was produced from 1904 to 1914 under the Elleham name .
Flying machines
He was initially engaged in the construction of explosion engines and developed an aircraft engine in 1896. Already at that time he was of the opinion that not balloons and airships, but aircraft heavier than air had a future. In 1905 he built a monoplane with an engine and carried out flight tests with it, but the 9 hp engine was too weak. Then he designed an engine with 18 hp. Both engines were the world's first air-cooled radial engines.
With his Ellehammer No. 1 and the 18 HP engine mentioned, he managed a flight 42 m in length and 0.75 m in height on the small Danish island of Lindholm on September 12, 1906. However, it was not recognized as it was not controlled by the FAI like the first Alberto Santos-Dumont flight on October 23, 1906.
Ellehammer built other similar flying machines in the years 1907–1916. On February 13, 1908, his new flying machine flew around 300 m.
On June 28, 1908, Ellehammer was the only participant to take part in the “heavier-than-air” prize flying with flying machines organized by the Kieler Verkehrsverein, which was held on the Nordmarksportfeld on the occasion of the Kiel Week . The registered German participant Otto Hermann Fritzsche was killed in a car accident a few weeks before the competition. The price of 5000 gold marks therefore went to the only competitor, Jakob Ellehammer, who managed to jump 47 meters in the air with his flying machine. That was the first public powered flight in Germany.
In October 1908, the German aviation pioneer Hans Grade flew an Ellehammer IV .
On September 28, 1912, he took off briefly in a self-made helicopter .
After an aircraft accident in 1916, he retired from aircraft construction. Then he devoted himself to mechanical engineering, e.g. B. the engine and pump construction. From 1930 he became interested in aircraft construction again, but no longer developed complete aircraft.
literature
- Jacob Christian Hansen Ellehammer: Jeg fløj: Nogle erindringer fra en uforglemmelig tid: 25 aaret for the first flight in Europe. Drengebladet, Copenhagen, 1931 (autobiography for the 25th anniversary of his first flight).
- Günter Schmitt, Werner Schwipps: Pioneers of early aviation. Gondrom Verlag, Bindlach 1995, ISBN 3-8112-1189-7 .
- Louise Karlskov Skyggebjerg: Multiopfinderen JCH Ellehammer . Klassisk Bil & MC., Bandholm, 2006, ISBN 87-988456-7-5 (Danish, with 13 pages of an English summary).
- Jochen Reiss: 111 places in Kiel that you have to see . Emons, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-86358-930-1 .
- Joachim Wachtel: The aviation experts . Mosaik Verlag, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-570-00837-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
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↑ Jochen Reiss : 111 locations in Kiel. Place 74: The Nordmarksportfeld
Joachim Wachtel : The Aviatikers. Pp. 83-84.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ellehammer, Jacob Christian Hansen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Danish aviation pioneer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 14, 1871 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bakkebølle |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 20, 1946 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Gentofte |