Johann Kravogl

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Johann Kravogl, around 1890

Johann Kravogl (born May 24, 1823 in the Rosengarten residence in Lana ( Fürstete Grafschaft Tirol ); † January 1, 1889 in Brixen ) was an inventor, gunsmith and mechanic .

Life

Electric motorcycle from Kravogl

Kravogl grew up as the youngest son of a law firm at the regional court in Lana. Kravogl and his two older siblings lost their parents at an early age and grew up on their own with the support of neighbors in the parental home. Kravogl turned out to be a talented student and, after completing six years of compulsory schooling, began a four-year locksmith apprenticeship with his uncle Josef Haring in Imst at the age of 12 . He was a versatile technician who not only manufactured all kinds of locks, but also fire engines and also worked as a gunsmith. The journeyman years led the young Kravogl on a wandering journey, the first evidence does not exist until 1844. At the age of 21 he worked in Zams and made his first invention, the compressed air locomotive. Kravogl did nothing to market the machine; it was not until years later that mining locomotives were built based on its design. Kravogl's machine is now in the Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck.

Kravogl later moved to Innsbruck , in 1855 he moved to Munich and worked there at the Fraunhofer Institute. In Munich he heard evening lectures and Sunday courses on geometry, engineering, physics, industrial chemistry and materials science and received certificates for this. Due to the very low wages, Kravogl moved on to Vienna , where he again attended lectures on physics, decadal arithmetic, movement studies and mechanics. In 1857 he finally settled down as a mechanic in the Innsbruck district of Wilten , where he initially lived in his workshop in the house of his older siblings. Gradually he found customers at trade schools, grammar schools and the University of Innsbruck. Kravogl learned to play the organ and built himself a two-manual harmonium. Around 1860, Professor von Waltenhofen encouraged him to design a mercury air pump which, as a vacuum pump, far exceeded all previous designs and made Kravogl known in scientific circles and earned him the title of "Imperial and Royal University Mechanic".

In 1867 he developed the "electric motor motorcycle", an electric motor with an efficiency of over 20%. In the same year, at the suggestion of the Innsbruck Chamber of Commerce, he demonstrated the motor together with a small "electromotive rotary device", a precision balance and its mercury air pump at the Paris World Exhibition and received a silver medal. The travel and transport costs came from a fund for undemanded exhibitors, as Kravogl could not raise the costs himself. The trip was also a financial success: the engine was sold to the Austrian Emperor for 2000 francs and went to the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna, Kravogl was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit and received another 1000 guilders as a grant for his research.

Kravogl then received various offers to dispose of his engine, some of which he turned down with the words “I don't like having anything to do with rich people!” But eventually sold his engine to Werner von Siemens. Kravogl's next design was a rapid-fire rifle that was 30 times faster than that used in the Austrian army. Due to disputes in the Austrian army, the invention was not sold to Austria, but to France.

In 1884 he moved from the burgrave's office to Brixen in the Eisack valley and set up a small workshop there. A young relative, who later also took over the business, stood by his side as an employee. On New Year's Day 1889, Kravogl died single and childless after a long lung disease.

Streets in Lana, Munich, Marling , Partschins, Bozen, Meran , Brixen , as well as Innsbruck , Salzburg and Vienna are named after him today.

Inventions

Kravogl's inventions include a.

Despite the great importance of many of his inventions, he could not derive any economic benefit from them.

literature

  • Attlmayr:  Kravogl Johann. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 4, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1969, p. 237 f. (Direct links on p. 237 , p. 238 ).
  • Rudolph Granichstaedten Czerwa: Johann Kravogl - inventor of the electric motorcycle , Vienna around 1910
  • Albert Innerhofer: Johann Kravogl - inventor of the electric motorcycle . Reprint 1998, richly illustrated, on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of his birth, published by the Heimatschutzverein Lana / Südtirol
  • Karl Wieninger: Südtiroler Gestalten , Bozen 1977, pp. 230–235

Web links

Commons : Johann Kravogl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kravogl, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian gunsmith and mechanic
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Lana ( South Tyrol )
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1889
Place of death Brixen