Josef Stefan Michels

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Josef Stefan Michels (* 1910 in Temesvár , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary , † October 13, 1987 in Nuremberg ) was a German engineer and inventor .

Life

Josef Stefan Michels, son of the businessman and innkeeper Josef Michels, came from the ethnic group of the Banat Swabians . He first attended the secondary school and then the Polytechnic in Timișoara , specializing in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering . He graduated in January 1935 with a state examination as a qualified electrical mechanical engineer. After a year of teaching at a technical school, Michels worked as a production engineer at the Malaxa locomotive and railcar factory in Bucharest . He then worked in the technical directorate of the oil company Astra Română in Câmpina , a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell , where he worked on the calculation, design and improvement of drilling and conveying equipment, systems for drilling steam engines, steam turbine systems, diesel and electric motors , High-pressure systems, pumping systems for water and oil, water purification systems, gas compressor systems, oil containers and tank trucks, loading systems, steel structures, probe gauges, precision mechanical instruments, disinfection systems and other refinery systems. Some of his inventions were patented. He was a member of the Romanian standards committee for the standardization of drilling rigs, line pipes, valves and gate valves .

In the course of the Second World War and the air raids on Ploieşti , Josef Stefan Michels was sent to the Reich Institute for Petroleum Research at the Technical University of Hanover in 1943 together with a group of Romanian-German petroleum experts , where he was able to continue his research on gun holes in the piping of petroleum probes. The new perforation methods proved to be important for increasing oil production for the German Reich . His accompanying inventions were patented in Germany. After the war he worked as a petroleum expert for the determination of war damage to the Shell refinery in Hamburg-Harburg .

Only in 1947 did he return to his family in Romania. Here he initially worked as an assistant in his wife's handicraft shop and as an authorized signatory of a small company. In 1949 Michels founded the Design Institute for Machines ( Romanian Institutul de Proiectări de Mașini , IPROM ) together with Ștefan Nădăşan and headed the mechanical engineering department there for four years. In 1951 he was one of the co-founders of the branch of the Romanian Academy of Sciences in Timișoara, where he worked as a research director.

After the temporary dissolution of the design institute in 1954, Michels switched to the mechanical engineering company Banat Metallurgical Industry ( Uzinele Mecanice Timișoara , UMT) and rose there to become chief designer. In 1960 he returned to the reopened engineering office, which had now specialized in crane construction and conveyor technology and became a leading institute for conveyor technology . Here he was first a department head, then a technical advisor and ultimately chief design engineer, the highest qualification level for an engineer in Romania. After his retirement Michaels continued his professional activity in the same position for several years. In 1982 he moved to the Federal Republic of Germany.

Josef Stefan Michels died on October 13, 1987 at the age of 77 in Nuremberg. He was married to the painter Ernestine Katharina Müller. The engineer Hartwig Michels and his sisters Gudrun and Ortrun emerged from the connection .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Academicianul Ștefan Nădăşan - Din viața și activitatea sa. (PDF; 1.2 MB) Retrieved on February 21, 2020 (Romanian).
personal data
SURNAME Michels, Josef Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Temesvár , Austria-Hungary , Kingdom of Hungary
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1987
Place of death Nuremberg