Otto Feuerlein

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Otto Feuerlein, oil painting from 1913

Otto Feuerlein (born December 11, 1863 in St. Gallen ; † May 19, 1930 in Berlin ) was a Swiss physicist , electrical engineer and pioneer in the manufacture of incandescent lamps .

Life

Otto Feuerlein, photo taken around 1885

Otto Feuerlein studied from 1881 to 1884 at the Polytechnic Stuttgart physics and a doctorate in 1884 at the University of Basel to the Dr. phil. From 1885 to 1888 he worked as an engineer in the electrotechnical factory in Cannstatt . In 1888 he joined Siemens & Halske AG in Berlin as an engineer and was initially involved in the construction of power plants in Terni and Cairo before he took on a managerial role in the so-called project office of the Siemens factory in Charlottenburg . He dealt with the manufacture and installation of electrical lighting in theaters and exhibitions as well as the associated security technology , for example at the Berlin trade exhibition in 1896 and at the world exhibitions in Brussels in 1897 and in Paris in 1900 .

In 1902, Feuerlein took over the management of the incandescent lamp factory in Berlin, where he sought to improve the carbon filament lamp widely used at the time , which had been in use since Edison's invention , on the initiative of Wilhelm von Siemens . As a replacement for the carbon threads, a thread made from a high-melting metal was envisaged. Feuerlein's colleague Werner von Bolton found the element tantalum to be suitable in his experiments . Feuerlein then worked on the shaping and holding of the tantalum wire and developed the principle according to which all later metal filament lamps were made. By 1905, the tantalum lamp was ready for series production and presented at a meeting of the Electrotechnical Association in Berlin.

In the following years, Feuerlein devoted himself to the continuous improvement of the tantalum lamp and took care of the patenting of these advances. Eight trips to the USA served to exchange experiences with American engineers and scientists, which also led him to Thomas Alva Edison's laboratory in West Orange .

Starting in 1910, the tantalum lamp was gradually replaced by the tungsten lamp that was customary afterwards due to the work of William David Coolidge , for which Feuerlein acquired the manufacturer's license from the USA for Siemens.

Feuerlein was a deputy member of the Management Board of Siemens & Halske AG from 1905 to 1908 and a full member from 1908 to 1919. When Siemens transferred the manufacture of incandescent lamps to the newly formed Osram GmbH after the First World War , Feuerlein moved to the management board there in 1920 and took over the management of the main plant. In 1923 he retired because of his poor health.

tomb

He is buried in the Heerstrasse cemetery.

family

Coat of arms , provided with a letter of arms from Emperor Karl V , awarded on June 15, 1551 to Hans Feyerlein, Mayor of Roth, an ancestor of Otto Feuerlein

Otto Feuerlein came from the Feuerlein family, which was part of the Württemberg honorable family . He was the son of the Stuttgart merchant Otto Feuerlein (1822–1875) and Mathilde Auguste Charlotte Feuerlein née. Ströbel (1824–1866) and had six siblings. Otto Feuerlein’s father of the same name, the Zurich merchant Otto Feuerlein (1822–1875), was a son of the first Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Willibald Feuerlein . The merchant Otto Feuerlein (1822–1875) worked as a textile merchant in Stuttgart , St. Gallen and Zurich, mainly importing Egyptian cotton. The physicist Otto Feuerlein (1863-1830) had been married to Sophie Kuhn (1866-1947) from Cannstatt since 1888 , from whom he had two daughters. One of his sons-in-law was the economist Hermann Funke .

Honors

literature

  • Osram-Nachrichten: Bulletin for the members of the Osram GmbH limited partnership. Volume 5, number 24, Berlin, December 15, 1923.
  • Osram-Nachrichten: Bulletin for the members of the Osram GmbH limited partnership. Volume 12, number 11, Berlin, June 1, 1930.
  • Werner von Bolton and Otto Feuerlein: The tantalum lamp, a new incandescent lamp from Siemens & Halske A.-G. In: Physics Journal. 4, No. 3, 2005, p. 18.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Alva Edison is considered the inventor of the first competitive electric lighting. U.S. Patent 223,898 was issued January 27, 1880. Patents for incandescent lamps were granted as early as the 1840s, but up until the further developments by Thomas Edison, all constructions had an experimental character with usage times of less than 10 hours and high energy consumption.
  2. ↑ Werner von Bolton and Otto Feuerlein: The tantalum lamp, a new incandescent lamp from Siemens & Halske A.-G. In: Electrotechnical Journal. 26, No. 4, 1905, p. 105.
  3. ↑ A small excerpt from the letter of arms given to Hans Feyerlein and his descendants. It is reproduced in the original spelling: “ Wappenbrief von Kaiser Karl des V Majestät. Hans Feyerlein granted. for the willing service he has given, to do himself and the rich man subserviently and willing to do and should. We aim and want that now for the named Hanns Feyerlein, his married heirs and the same heirs the prescribed coat of arms and cleinot have, lead and should use and enjoy them in all and all honest and honest things and done to Schimpff and Ernst, to Streyten and Kempffen, Insiegel, Pettschafften, Cleinoten and otherwise in all corners and places according to Irish emergency, will and willingly. "
personal data
SURNAME Little fire, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss physicist, electrical engineer and pioneer in the manufacture of light bulbs
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1930
Place of death Berlin