Olaf Kjelsberg

Olaf Kjelsberg (around 1924)

Olaf Kjelsberg (born June 21, 1857 in Lødingen , Norway , † April 29, 1927 in Winterthur ) was a Norwegian engineer and ski pioneer who lived in Switzerland.

Life

Kjelsberg was born the son of a lensman in Lofoten . After schooling in his home country, he entered the Dresden University of Technology in 1878 , where he studied engineering for three years. In 1882 Kjelsberg moved to the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Factory in Winterthur, Switzerland, where he became head of the technical office under Charles Brown , rose to chief engineer in 1897 and became a member of the management in 1907. His trained by himself employees, among others, the future belonged Borsig -Chefingenieur and head of the development of einheitsdampflokomotive the Deutsche Reichsbahn commissioned standardization offices of the German locomotive factories, August Master .

The development of the mechanical part of the first electric locomotives was significantly influenced by Kjelsberg, which enabled SLM to deliver to the Norwegian State Railways due to its origins . He worked with other experts on a report on the electrification of the Swedish State Railways and advised English engineers on the electrification of the railways in South Africa . He also supported the development of cogwheel locomotives and the construction of a steam turbine locomotive with a turbine from Zoelly .

In addition to his work as an engineer, Kjelsberg was also a pioneer in skiing. He climbed the Bachtel on skis in 1891 , the subsequent descent is considered the first documented descent outside Scandinavia . Kjelsberg found that the 3 meter long skis from Østerdalen , which were initially used, were unsuitable for the steeper terrain in Switzerland compared to his homeland and that shorter telemark skis were better suited. But these were still 2.5 meters long. In 1893, in a race over the Pragel Pass , in which Olaf Kjelsberg, the Glarus tradesman Christoph Iselin , the Glarus civil engineer Alexander von Steiger and Eduard Naef-Blumer , a climbing friend from Kjelsberg, took part, it became clear that the company's skis imported from Norway were taking part Blichfeldt & Huitfeldt the snowshoes were downhill far superior.

family

Kjelsberg was married to Maria Elisabeth Caflisch von Trin . With Maria he had two daughters and four sons. One year after he became chief engineer, Kjelsberg had the Villa Kjelsberg built at Pflanzschulstrasse 42 in Winterthur ( ). The villa was designed in neo-Gothic style by Otto Bridler together with Ernst Georg Jung in 1898 and is still preserved today.

Web links

• Olaf Kjelsberg (obituary) . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 83 , no. 23 , 1924, pp. 272–273 ( online [PDF; 1.7 MB ]).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Elisabeth Eggimann Gerber: Kjelsberg, Olaf. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Villa Kjelsberg, Seidenstr. 42. In: Winterthur Glossary . Retrieved May 17, 2015 . 
3. ^ Two Planks and a Passion: The Dramatic History of Skiing . A&C Black, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4411-3401-1 ( Google Books [accessed May 16, 2015]).
4. ↑ Preserve important architectural monuments. (No longer available online.) In: Portal Winterthur: News. City of Winterthur, March 12, 2004, archived from the original on May 18, 2015 ; Retrieved May 17, 2015 . 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.