Karl von Drais

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Baron Karl von Drais (1820)

Karl Freiherr von Drais , whose full name was Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn , (born April 29, 1785 in Karlsruhe , † December 10, 1851 ibid) was a German forest official and important inventor in the Biedermeier period .

Life

Origin and education

Karl von Drais (colored lithograph from the 1830s)

His father was the Baden court and government councilor Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Friedrich von Drais von Sauerbronn , his mother Margarete Ernestine von Kaltenthal . Margrave Carl Friedrich von Baden took over his sponsorship. In 1790 the von Drais family moved from Sauerbronn to Kirchberg (Hunsrück) to the house of the Badische Gendarmerie, and in 1794 to Durlach during the French Revolution . In 1799 his mother died. He attended the Karlsruhe Princely School, the forerunner of today's Bismarck High School . Since the school performance, especially in Latin, was not the best - the father decided to let the son teach at his brother's forestry school. From 1800 to 1803 he attended the private forestry school of his uncle Friedrich Heinrich Georg von Drais in Pforzheim. From 1803 to 1805 Drais studied architecture, agriculture and physics at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg . From 1805 to 1807 Drais was transferred to the Rastatt Forestry Office for practical training in his forestry career, after which he was instructed again at his uncle's forestry school in Schwetzingen and, after successfully passing his exams in 1808, was employed pro forma as a forest inspector at the Schuttern Forestry Office. 1810 Drais Baden was forester without forestry department and the service exempted to his activity as inventor pursue. In 1818 he was appointed professor of mechanics by Grand Duke Carl and received a salary until the end of his life as a forester without a forestry office.

Brazil and Karlsruhe

On January 5, 1822, Drais took part in Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff's expedition to Brazil and stayed there until June 1827. In 1839 the “foolish forester” moved to Waldkatzenbach at the urging of the authorities , from 1842 he lived in Mannheim again, and in 1845 he moved to Karlsruhe. In 1848/49 Drais was a member of the vigilante group in the Baden Revolution and temporarily renounced his title of nobility. In 1850 incapacitation proceedings were initiated against him, but his sisters undertook to take the necessary precautions.

Inventions

Drais' inventions include a “formula for the general solution of the numerical equations of every degree” (1810), a “notation machine” (1812) that simultaneously wrote down the notes while playing the piano, a type of calculation called “ dyadic character ” with the basic numbers 0 and 1 (1813), an "improvement of the fire extinguishing stations" (1813), a "carriage without horses" (1813), a "heightening perspective" (1816), a " high-speed typewriter " with (only) four times four keys (1825), a “wood-saving stove” (1833) with a pipeline system, the system of which was adopted by distilleries, and a “cooking machine” (1834). The railroad trolley was not invented by Drais, it is said to have first appeared in Vienna (1837) and then to have been named after Drais. However, Drais claimed the basic idea ("carriage without horses" from 1814). In addition, inventions were attributed to Drais or inventions not explained by him were listed.

Walking machine

The original design from Drais' description from 1817
Draisine (walking machine)

Drais' most important invention, however, is the original bicycle , the walking machine or draisine (1817). With it a steered two-wheeler was realized for the first time. In 1813 Drais developed a carriage with four wheels that were moved via a crank , which he called "carriage without horses". The invention of the two-wheeler principle by Drais is considered a “stroke of genius”, the derivation of which cannot be explained by four-wheeled cars. Drais said he took the idea from ice skating. The "walking machine" that arose from this idea had a wooden frame and two wooden wheels of the same size, of which the front one could be controlled with a drawbar. It was propelled by alternately pushing off with the legs while the driver sat on a seat between the two wheels. The direction of travel was influenced both by the drawbar handlebar and by balancing the vehicle, i.e. without the feet touching the ground, speeds of more than 15 km / h were possible.

The first test drive with his walking machine - later referred to by newspapers as a "Draisine" - from his house in the Mannheimer squares (M 1.8) to the Schwetzingen horse changing station about 7 km away - located in today's Mannheim district of Rheinau at the Karlsplatz traffic roundabout. Drais chose the road from Mannheim to Schwetzingen for his test drive, because this was probably the best-developed road in Baden - because it led to Schwetzingen Palace, which the former Palatinate electors used as a summer residence. He made the first long-distance journey on June 12, 1817 and only needed an hour to get there and back. With the running machine weighing just under 50 pounds , he reached an average speed of around 15 km / h - an enormous speed for the time, which will soon result in bans. He made his second major excursion from Gernsbach over the mountain to Baden-Baden .

"The Baron Karl von Drais, who according to credible evidence, Thursday the 12th June d. J. drove from Mannheim to the Schwetzinger Rebenhaus and back again with the latest genre of horse-free driving machines he had invented, i.e. 4 hours by post in one hour, took the same machine over the steep two-hour mountain path from Gernsbach here covered in about an hour, and convinced several art lovers of the great speed of this very interesting driving machine. "

- Badwochenblatt dated July 29, 1817.

To make his invention known, Drais organized public trips. These events were crowned with a long-distance trip from Karlsruhe to Kehl in the last week of August. He also published articles in magazines. On January 12, 1818, he received a grand-ducal privilege for his invention, comparable to a patent today . From then on, every draisine in Baden had to have a Drais license stamp on the handlebar. Drais received another certification in France.

"The Freiherr von Drais
inventor of the high-
speed machine, well-known quick thinker and sharp thinker."

- (Colored lithograph from the 1830s)

Drais' descent

French caricature by Drais (1818)

Copies of the walking machine appeared all over Europe, so that Drais could not sell any more copies by the beginning of the 1820s. After his return from Brazil (1827) and his father's death (1830), he tried to achieve economic success through new inventions (including the stove and pipe pipe). In 1834 he tried to get back into the official civil service, but the Mosbach Forestry Office refused. On November 16, 1835, Drais had to return his chamberlain key because of a tavern fight in Mannheim with the English horseman Belling . For Drais this meant “social death”. The youth made a fool of Drais and shouted:

"Freiherr von Rutsch
to drive kei carriage
to ride no horse
too lazy to run."

In the asylum in Waldkatzenbach (from 1839) the forester with the "great thirst" was well-liked and worked for the village blacksmith. Back in Karlsruhe in 1845, Drais was already a sick man marked by alcohol and a comical figure who fell victim to silly pranks. In the years 1848 and 1849, when he drove past the town hall in Karlsruhe, the guard invited him for a drink . In return, he had to drive down the stairs from the portal in his vehicle, which regularly resulted in the proverbial “Salto portale”. An incapacitation process initiated in April 1850 was averted by his relatives. On December 10, 1851 at 5 p.m. Drais died in Karlsruhe, Zähringerstraße 43. His estate was valued at 30 guilders and 34 kreuzers . These included a cooking machine, an oven model, a high-speed typewriter and a walking machine.

Political commitment

Drais was dissatisfied with the political conditions in Baden. When the soldiers mutinied in the garrison towns on May 11, 1849 and the Grand Duke fled from his dissatisfied subjects, Drais, who was living in Karlsruhe again, publicly showed his flag. In the “Karlsruher Zeitung” on May 12, 1849, he published the resignation of his title of nobility: “I (...) hereby solemnly declare, in view of the German sovereign nation, that I am on the altar of the fatherland, freedom, equality and popular sovereignty, everyone from feudal rights, the thousand-year pressure of which put Germany's freedom in chains, renouncing privileges for me and my legitimate and illegitimate descendants. "The confession as" Drais, professor, citizen and member of the sovereign German people "was signed when the revolution had failed , the regime took revenge on Drais. In order to settle the costs of the revolution, the authorities first canceled Drai's pension, after which a politically motivated medical report declared him to be no longer sane due to "weakness of mind and partial obstinacy".

Obituary and honors

Heinrich Meidinger wrote an obituary on the occasion of an anniversary celebration in honor of Drais in Karlsruhe in 1891 ("Vom Inventen" 1892). In it, Meidinger polemically denied Drais being an inventor. In a short biography in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Drais, Moritz Cantor attributed a method "to use the curved trajectory of a projectile to shoot around the corner by putting the cannon on its side" (shooting around the corner). The image of Drais at the time was negative.

Drais was honored as the inventor of the impeller in Germany late in the year with a few street names, for example in Ansbach, Bruchsal, Freiburg, Ingolstadt, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Rastatt, Schwandorf and Speyer. In Austria there is only one Draisgasse each in Graz - near the former Cless & Plessing bicycle factory - and Feldkirchen bei Graz . Various schools have Karl von Drais as namesake, for example in Mannheim, Gernsbach and Heddesheim .

In 1985 , for Drais' 200th birthday, there was a special postage stamp from the Deutsche Bundespost .

In 2017, in the anniversary year of the draisine, events and exhibitions on the subject of 200 years of bicycles took place in Baden-Württemberg. The sons of Mannheim wrote a song (“Will you accompany me?”) For the anniversary. A 20 euro commemorative coin has been issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance ; published July 13, 2017. In this context, Jost Pietsch speaks of a “state counterfeit coin”, since the name of the inventor is incorrectly stated as “Karl Drais” (correct: “von Drais”) and the “Tambora thesis” and “horse deaths “Has not been proven. In Mannheim, the musical Karl Drais - The Driving Force was performed under the direction of Georg Veit . The music came from Michael Herberger, the lyrics were written by Rino Galiano .

With the motto 200 years of bicycles , Deutsche Post AG issued a postage stamp with a face value of 70 euro cents on July 13, 2017. The design comes from Rudolf Grüttner and Sabine Matthes from Oranienburg.

  • Karl Drais' grave in the main cemetery in Karlsruhe

  • Drais memorial in Beiertheimer Allee, Karlsruhe

  • Postage stamp (1985)

  • Drais memorial at the turning point of the first test drive in Mannheim-Rheinau

Fonts

literature

  • Carl Johann Siegmund Bauer: Description of the v. Drais' driving machine and some improvements attempted on it, Nuremberg 1817. Reprint: Westhafen Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-942836-09-8 .
  • Moritz Cantor :  Drais von Sauerbronn, Karl Freiherr . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 373.
  • Ludwig Croon: The bicycle and its development. Deutsches Museum , Treatises and Reports. VDI-Verlag, Berlin 1939.
  • Hermann Ebeling: The Freiherr von Drais: the tragic life of the "crazy baron". An inventor's fate in the Biedermeier period . Braun, Karlsruhe 1985. ISBN 3-7650-8045-4 .
  • Franz Maria Feldhaus : The technology. A lexicon of prehistoric times, historical times and primitive peoples. Engelmann, Leipzig and Berlin 1914.
  • Karl Hasel : Karl Friedrich Frhr. Drais von Sauerbronn , in Peter Weidenbach (Red.): Biography of important forest people from Baden-Württemberg . Publication series of the state forest administration Baden-Württemberg, Volume 55. Published by the Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Environment Baden-Württemberg. Landesforstverwaltung Baden-Württemberg and Baden-Württemberg Forestry Experimental and Research Institute, Stuttgart and Freiburg im Breisgau 1980, pp. 99–109.
  • Hans-Erhard Lessing : Karl Drais - two wheels instead of four hooves . G. Braun-Verlag, Karlsruhe 2010. ISBN 978-3-7650-8569-7 .
  • Hans-Erhard Lessing: Mannheim pioneers . Wellhöfer Verlag, Mannheim 2007, pp. 43–56. ISBN 978-3-939540-13-7 .
  • Hans-Erhard Lessing: Automobility - Karl Drais and the incredible beginnings . Maxime-Verlag, Leipzig 2003. ISBN 3-931965-22-8 .
  • Heinz Schmitt: Karl Friedrich Drais von Sauerbronn: 1785–1851; a Baden inventor; Exhibition on his 200th birthday; City history in the Prinz-Max-Palais , Karlsruhe, March 9 - May 26, 1985; City Reiss-Museum Mannheim, July 5 - August 18, 1985 . Karlsruhe City Archives, Karlsruhe 1985.
  • Jörg Schweigard: A terrible year without a summer. The world owes the invention of the two-wheeler to a natural disaster 200 years ago. The Baden inventor Karl Friedrich von Drais was a visionary - but he fell out of favor with the Grand Duke towards the end of his life. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , December 8, 2015.
  • Johannes Schweikle: The adventurous journey of Mr. von Drais - A novel biography . Klöpfer & Meyer, Tübingen 2017. ISBN 978-3-86351-445-7 .
  • Michael Rauck: Karl Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn: inventor and entrepreneur (1785-1851) . Steiner, Stuttgart 1983. ISBN 3-515-03939-2 .
  • Sigfrid von Weiher:  Drais v. Sauerbronn, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 100 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Thomas Schuetz: 2 wheels - 200 years of bicycles. Freiherr von Drais and the history of the bicycle . In: Technikgeschichte, Vol. 84 (2017), H. 1, pp. 71-75.

Web links

Commons : Karl Drais  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ We don't know anything about his inclinations from this time, only that he was tortured in vain with Latin . See Ebeling, p. 29.
  2. ↑ Drais uses paper instead of buckets. See Heinz Schmitt, p. 57.
  3. ↑ Margrave Wilhelm von Baden presented Drais with thirty guilders for this invention at the agricultural exhibition in Karlsruhe. See Ebeling, p. 114.
  4. ↑ With the least amount of effort ... the food required for three people can be cooked through in 4 hours without the need to re-kindle the fire. (Karlsruher Zeitung of January 3, 1837)
  5. ↑ In December 2007, the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? asked about the inventor (Drais) of a pressure cooker and a high-speed typewriter with 16 keys. [1]
  6. ↑ Cannon that shoots around the corner; Meat chopper; Plowing machines; Wagon that pushes horses from behind; Flying machines; Telegraph to be conducted through a piano keyboard; Daylight reflector; Diamond Taxation Scale. See Schmitt, p. 61.
  7. ↑ According to a thesis published in 1996 by Hans-Erhard Lessing, the construction of such horseless vehicles was necessary because of the rise in oat prices since 1812. This technology became even more topical due to catastrophic crop failures in the " year without a summer " 1816, which was caused by the explosion of the Tambora volcano in April 1815. Compare: HE Lessing: Karl von Drais - the Empire technologist is being rehabilitated. In: Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter New Series 3 (1996), pp. 275–359. Compare: HE Lessing: Karl Drais - two wheels instead of four hooves. Karlsruhe 2010, p. 36 ff. Many horses died due to the lack of feed . Drais saw his invention as a means of replacing the missing horses as a means of transport. The connection assumed by Lessing between the Tambora eruption and the Drais invention is considered unproven. See: Christian Wüst: Veil over it. A physicist spreads the thesis that a volcanic eruption inspired the invention of the bicycle. Historians believed him - probably wrongly. In: Der Spiegel 10/2017 of March 4, 2017, p. 98. See the great Tambora swindle website by Jost Pietsch.
  8. ↑ That Drais was looking for a vehicle for the narrow forest paths in his function as forester in 1817 could only be assumed by an American doctoral student, ignorant of the fact that Drais had been living in the city for eight years. See Norman L. Dunham: The Bicycle Era in American History , Harvard University, Boston 1956 - this was repeated years ago. Compare: Gunnar Fehlau: The recumbent bike. 3rd, completely revised edition. Delius Klasing (Verlag), Bielefeld, Edition Moby Dick (Verlag), Kiel 1996 (1993), ISBN 978-3-89595-025-4 , p. 10.
  9. ↑ In an advertisement in the Karlsruher Zeitung on May 12, 1849, the unmarried Drais (allegedly) waives the privileges “for me and my legitimate and illegitimate descendants” [2] . In the publication of the thought chips (sale of medals for the enrichment of the state treasury) of May 19, 1849 and August 28, 1849, there is no mention of this. See Schmitt, p. 74.
  10. ↑ Here, too, the correct name "Karl von Drais" is not given.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Schmitt: Karl Friedrich Drais von Sauerbronn. P. 9.
  2. ↑ The inventor Karl Friedrich Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn spent part of his childhood in the Hunsrück . In: Rhein-Zeitung No. 101, edition BO, from May 2, 2017, p. 32.
  3. ↑ Hans Heinrich Pardey. From walking to driving . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of February 28, 2017, page T1
  4. ^ Hans-Erhard Lessing: Automobility. Karl Drais and the incredible beginnings . Maxime-Verl, 2003, ISBN 3-931965-22-8 .
  5. ↑ 1808: 400 gulden, ten Malter grain, twenty Malter spelled, 1½ load of wine, free apartment, ten fathoms of firewood, a riding horse;
    1819–1845: 1011 guilders, 18 kroner. See Ebeling, p. 122
  6. ^ Hermann Ebeling: The Baron von Drais. P. 101.
  7. ^ In a document dated August 18, 1848, he crossed out the title Baron. See Ebeling, p. 125.
  8. ↑ Ebeling, p. 127.
  9. ↑ Heinz Schmitt, p. 54.
  10. ↑ Charitable advertisements. Nro. 2 , Badisches Magazin Nro. 174, July 25, 1812, p. 685 , with reference to Karl Chr. Fr. Krause : About an improved sound writing language , General musical newspaper No. 30, July 24, 1811, col. 497–504 (accompanying illustration )
  11. ↑ The patent application for a periscope went to the City Council of Frankfurt on December 1, 1816. See Heinz Schmitt, p. 57.
  12. ↑ Ebeling, p. 123.
  13. ↑ Ebeling, p. 65.
  14. ↑ The Brockhaus Encyclopedia Online : Keyword: Drais, Karl . BROCKHAUS / NE GmbH , Munich, September 29, 2016, accessed on February 10, 2017 (online).
  15. ↑ Pryor Dodge: The fascination of bicycles. History - technology - development. With a foreword by Hans-Erhard Lessing. Translation from English by Renate Bauer ‑ Lessing. Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-7688-5253-1 , p. 8.
  16. ^ Peter Barzel, Michael Bollschweiler, Christian Smolik: The new bicycle technology. Material, construction, manufacturing. BVA - Bielefelder Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-87073-322-3 , pp. 8-9.
  17. ↑ a b Ulrich Artmann, Franz Beck, Rüdiger Bellersheim a. a .: Expertise in bicycle technology. Processed by apprentices, engineers and experts. 3. Edition. Verlag Europa ‑ Lehrmittel, Nourney, Vollmer GmbH & Co. KG, Haan ‑ Gruiten 2009, ISBN 978-3-8085-2293-6 , p. 9.
  18. ↑ Badwochenblatt for the Grand Ducal City of Baden, issue No. 24 of July 29, 1817, p. 188
  19. ↑ Ebeling, p. 119.
  20. ↑ Peter Schneider: The two-wheeler through the ages. German Two-Wheeler Museum Neckarsulm. 1980, p. 83.
  21. ↑ Ludwig Croon, p. 167.
  22. ↑ Ebeling, pp. 125, 126.
  23. ↑ Heinz Schmitt: Karl Friedrich Drais von Sauerbronn . P. 14.
  24. ↑ Ebeling, p. 128.
  25. ↑ Jörg Schweigard: A terrible year without a summer. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. December 8, 2015, accessed September 4, 2018 .
  26. ↑ Hans-Erhard Lessing in: Heinz Schmitt (Ed.): P. 28.
  27. ↑ PK von Engelmeyer: General questions of technology. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 315, 1900, pp. 169-173.
  28. ↑ Draisine
  29. ↑ 200years-fahrrad.de
  30. ↑ youtube.com
  31. ↑ bundesfinanzministerium.de ( Memento of the original dated June 12, 2017 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. 20 euro commemorative coin "Karl Drais' running machine 1817" @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundesfinanzministerium.de
  32. ↑ karl-von-drais.de State counterfeit coin (accessed on June 15, 2017)
  33. ↑ Der Sonntag (Karlsruhe), May 7, 2017, p. 3.
  34. ↑ Der Sonntag (Karlsruhe), May 7, 2017, p. 3.
  35. ↑ philatelie.deutschepost.de 200 years of bicycles - 1817 Karl Drais (as of July 18, 2017)
personal data
SURNAME Drais, Karl von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Drais von Sauerbronn, Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Freiherr (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German inventor in Goethe's time
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1785
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1851
Place of death Karlsruhe