Gustaf Dalén

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Nils Gustaf Dalén

Nils Gustaf Dalén (born November 30, 1869 in Stenstorp , † December 9, 1937 in Lidingö , Stockholm County ) was a Swedish engineer . In 1912 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics “for his invention of self-acting regulators that are used in combination with gas accumulators to illuminate lighthouses and light buoys ” .

life and work

Nils Gustaf Dalén was born in Stenstorp , in the municipality of Falköping , in 1869 , the third of five children of the farmer Anders Johansson and his wife Lovisa Dahlén. His brother Albin later became a well-known ophthalmologist and professor at the Karolinska Institutet .

Dalén's inventiveness was evident at a young age when he constructed a threshing machine on his father's farm , which was driven by an old spinning wheel . He also developed a device with which the fat content of milk could be determined. Through this invention he came into contact with the engineer Gustaf de Laval .

De Laval was impressed by the talent of the young Dalén and convinced him not to study dairy farming at the agricultural school - as originally planned - but to complete a technical training. Dalén applied to the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and was accepted in 1892. In 1896 he successfully completed his training as an engineer and then studied mechanical engineering for a year at the Zurich Polytechnic (today the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ). One of his professors was Aurel Stodola .

After his return to Gothenburg, Dalén devoted himself to research for a while: he designed various compressors and pumps , invented a device for pasteurization and a milking machine before he took over the technical management of Svenska Karbid-och Acetylen AB in 1901 . He later moved to Aktiebolaget Gas-Accumulator (AGA), where he became chief engineer in 1906. Shortly before, the company had acquired the patent for the extraction of dissolved ethine . Dalén used this invention to construct a new type of automatic lighting system for lighthouses (the Dalén flashing light ) and to manufacture new gas containers: he filled the containers with a mixture of asbestos and diatomaceous earth, thereby depriving ethine of its explosive properties, which had previously been used of the material had prevented the operation of lighthouses.

The first Dalén fire at Blockhusudden in Stockholm

Dalén also invented a sun valve that automatically ignited the lighthouse when it got dark and extinguished it in the morning. AGA lighthouses could thus be operated for a long time - up to a year - without personnel and without maintenance and thus not only contributed to improving safety in shipping , but also helped to make great savings in terms of personnel and material on Sweden's long coasts. In 1912, the world's first beacon based on Dalén's principle was installed at Blockhusudden on Djurgården in the harbor entrance to Stockholm , when the beacon was electrified 68 years later, it could be stated that it had never been repaired.

In 1909 Dalén took over the management of the AGA.

While testing the safety of ethine containers in 1912, Dalén was seriously injured in an unexpected explosion and lost his eyesight . After he recovered from his injuries, he continued his research and was commissioned, among other things, to equip the Panama Canal with lighthouses.

Later he dealt with the improvement of heating technology and in 1922 he invented a stove that could heat up to 24 hours with just eight pounds of coal . The AGA cooker was also a great success beyond the borders of Sweden and in the 1930s it was practically standard equipment (AGA Cooker) in certain classes of England (among the owners of medium and large country houses).

With his wife Elma Persson, who had married Dalén in 1901, he had two sons and two daughters. Their eldest son, Gunnar, became an engineer and later took over management of the AGA from his father; the younger son, Anders, became a medic.

Dalén died in 1937 at the age of 68 in his villa in Lidingö . In his honor, a 26 m high lighthouse on the coast of Södermanland bears his name.

Awards

Dalén received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1912 "for his invention of self-acting regulators that are used in combination with gas accumulators to illuminate lighthouses and light buoys" . The award of the prize for a technical invention was a big exception and is still very unusual to this day. Since Dalén received the award shortly after his blindness , the motive for this honor is still speculated: It is possible that the jurors were guided by their sympathy in choosing the winner.

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personal data
SURNAME Dalén, Gustaf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dalén, Nils Gustaf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish physicist and winner of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physics
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Stenstorp
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1937
Place of death Lidingö , Stockholm County