Leo Funck

Leo Victor Funck, Sr. (born December 26, 1836 in Aachen , † February 28, 1923 ) was a German engineer and inventor . He was involved in the development of the world's first high-speed gasoline engine.

Life and accomplishments

At the end of 1877, Leo Funck sought a job at the Deutz gas engine factory founded by Eugen Langen (1833–1895) and Nicolaus Otto (1832–1891), today's Deutz AG , in which Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900) and Wilhelm Maybach ( 1846–1929) worked. Leo Funck had therefore introduced himself to Eugen Langen. But although he liked Langen, no agreement was reached.

On March 22, 1879, Funck had received the basic patent number 7408 from more than 400 patents in which glow tube ignitions were protected.

In January 1881, Langen and Daimler visited him together in Aachen. There, Leo Funck offered his ignition device, which was more advanced than Otto's ignition slide, to Langen and Daimler. The Funck system worked with a tightly screwed-in platinum tube held in red heat by a gas flame, which was connected to the combustion gases at the time of ignition via a slide. While Otto's flame ignition required a “lock chamber” and a “relay flame” to compensate for the pressure difference outside-inside, there was no pressure loss in the glow tube. The thermal load on the ignition slide was lower, so that it could be made lighter and simpler. In this way, the controlled glow tube ignition could have replaced the gas and ignition control protected by DRP No. 532 in large engines. Whether Otto therefore worked to ensure that Funck was not employed in 1877 and that his patent was not applied at least on a trial basis can only be guessed at. Langen and Daimler, however, did not recognize the value of the innovation, although they could have developed a simpler, better and cheaper ignition device from Funck's controlled glow tube ignition than the clumsy ignition slide that the gas engine factory used until 1884.

The world's first high-speed petrol engine, which Wilhelm Maybach had developed and built in 1883, was equipped with the glow tube ignition for which Leo Funck owned a patent.

Patents

• 1876: Atmospheric gas engine
• March 22, 1879: Controlled glow tube ignition (DRP 7408)

literature

• Friedrich Sass : History of the German Internal Combustion Engine Construction: From 1860 to 1918. Springer Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-662-11843-6 , p. 81.
• Reinhard Seiffert: The Gottlieb Daimler era - New perspectives on the early history of the automobile and its technology. Vieweg + Teubner, 2009, ISBN 978-3-834-80962-9 , p. 65 ff.
• The great chronicle of world history / the imperial age. Wissenmedia, 2008, ISBN 978-3-577-09074-2 , pp. 130 f.
• Rudolf Krebs: Five millennia of wheeled vehicles: two centuries of road traffic with thermal energy. Over 100 years of automobiles. Springer Verlag, 1994, ISBN 978-3-540-57795-9 , p. 239 f.
• Eberhard Wächtler : Carl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach. BG Teubner Leipzig, 1981, ISBN 978-3-322-82218-5 , p. 72

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Friedrich Sass: History of the German internal combustion engine construction: From 1860 to 1918 . Springer Verlag 2013, ISBN 978-3-662-11842-9 , p. 81 ( online )
2. ^ Rudolf Krebs: Five millennia of wheeled vehicles: 2 centuries of road traffic with thermal energy. Over 100 years of automobiles. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1994, ISBN 978-3-642-93553-4 S ,. 239 ( online )
3. ↑ Reinhard Seiffert: The era of Gottlieb Daimler: New perspectives on the early history of the automobile and its technology. Wiesbaden: Vieweg + Teubner, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8348-0962-9 , p. 65 ( online )
4. ↑ Detlef Wienecke-Janz: The great chronicle world history: The imperial age: [1871-1914]. Vol. 14. Wissenmedia Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-577-09074-2 , p. 131 ( online )
5. ^ Patent of Leo Funck, engineer in Aachen, on an atmospheric gas engine  in the German Digital Library