Otto Kammerer

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Otto Kammerer, 1907, photo by Rudolf Dührkoop

Otto Kammerer (born April 8, 1865 in Miesbach , Upper Bavaria , † June 15, 1951 in Miesbach) was a German mechanical engineer with a doctorate, professor and rector of the Royal Technical University of Berlin (today TU Berlin).

Life

Kammerer was the son of the Miesbach lawyer and notary Anton Kammerer and Helene Kammerer (1844–98). In 1911 he married Adelheid Spandau from Lutter am Barenberge in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The marriage remained childless.

Study and job

Kammerer studied mechanical engineering at the Technical Universities of Munich and Charlottenburg. In 1889 he went to Eisenwerke AG, formerly Nagel & Kaemp, in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst as an engineer . At this height of the industrial revolution, the replacement of the conveyor technology previously operated with steam engines by electric motors began. Kammerer is considered a pioneer of this technological development. After a career at Nagel & Kaemp, during which he constructed the first electrically operated harbor crane, which was erected on a trial basis in Hamburg in 1890 and during which he set up the first electric quay crane system in Rotterdam in 1894, he moved to the TH Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1896. His engineering achievement became a model, and soon there were electric quay cranes everywhere, which had an electromagnetic clutch invented by Kammerer, so that multiple motors and reversing gears were superfluous.

Scientific career

From October 1, 1896 to 1933, Kammerer was full professor for mechanical engineering and lifting machines in Department III for Mechanical Engineering (renamed from 1922 to Faculty III for Mechanical Engineering, in 1928 renamed to Faculty III for Mechanical Engineering) at the Royal Technical University of Berlin (from 1919 renamed to Technische Hochschule zu Berlin). He later expanded his field of activity to include steam boilers and power distribution, and later to machine elements and conveyor technology. In the academic years 1898/1899, 1904/1905 and 1906/1907 Kammerer worked as head (dean) of Department III for mechanical engineering and as head of the experimental field for machine elements founded in 1906 . During his time at the Technical University, Kammerer applied for 21 patents. In 1901 he was the first engineer to be allowed to address the gathering of German naturalists and doctors in Hamburg . Together with Bergrat Wilhelm Ulrich Arbenz (* 1868), Kammerer developed a new type of track -moving machine that accelerated the time-consuming moving up of the dredging tracks in open-cast brown coal mining . Kammerer improved conveyor technology from 1906 to 1909 in the coal reloading facilities of the inland ports of Breslau and Kosel .

Rectorates

In the university years 1902/1903 and 1907/1908 Kammerer was the rector of the Royal Technical University of Berlin at its head. In his first Rector's speech on January 26, 1903, Kammerer put culture in relation to the art of engineering; the second Rector's speech on January 25, 1908 dealt with tools and the division of labor . The first self-grippers and investigations in elevator construction were the research area of ​​Kammerer from 1912. In 1907 he had taken over the research area of Ernst Reichel (1857–1934), who had dealt with belt and cable drives . Kammerer carried out basic research here and set up a test stand, which was later developed under his direction into a test field for machine elements at the TH Berlin.

First World War

During the First World War , Kammerer was head of the metal clearance office of the War Ministry , a job that led him to questions of engineering efficiency and economy. After the war, Kammerer, together with his assistant Hermann Cranz, designed and operated a test stand that helped investigate the behavior of gears , plain bearings , worm gears and drive belts and belts . The research field of track-moving machines and conveyor systems, which was already considered before the war, found a practical implementation in an engineering office founded by Kammerer in 1919, which belonged to the Braunkohlen- und Maschinen GmbH Berlin . Kammerer retired in 1933. On April 24, 1950, he was made an honorary senator of the Technical University of Berlin.

Known students

Publications

  • The technique of load handling. A study of the development of hoisting machines and their influence on economic life and cultural history . Munich & Berlin: Oldenbourg, 1907
  • Tests with belt and rope drives. Berlin & Heidelberg: Springer, 1908 (= reports on research work in the field of engineering / published by the Association of German Engineers ; Issues 56 and 57), doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-662-01985-6
  • The evolution of the gears. In: Contributions to the history of technology and industry. Yearbook of the Association of German Engineers / ed. by Conrad Matschoss . Fourth volume. Berlin: Springer, 1912, pp. 242-273
  • Tests with belts of a special kind. Berlin & Heidelberg: Springer, 1917 (= reports on research work in the field of engineering, in particular from the laboratories of technical universities / published by the Association of German Engineers ; Issue 132), doi : 10.1007 / 978-3- 662-01986-3
  • Lecture text (without photographs) “The necessity of machine work”. In: Otto Kammerer; Georg Schlesinger : machine and tool . Berlin: Mittler, 1917 (= Technical Evenings in the Central Institute for Education and Teaching ; Issue 2), pp. 1–10

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Kammerer, January 26th, 1903: Is the lack of freedom in our culture a consequence of engineering? , Speech on the birthday of His Majesty the Emperor and King Wilhelm II in the hall of the Royal Technical University of Berlin on January 26, 1903, specimen copy can be found at: location / signature Freiburg UB / KA 78/1181.
  2. ↑ Otto Kammerer, January 25, 1908: Tools and division of labor , speech on the birthday of His Majesty the Emperor and King Wilhelm II in the hall of the Royal Technical University of Berlin on January 25, 1908, specimen copy can be found under: Location / Signature Freiburg UB / KA 78/1186.
personal data
SURNAME Kammerer, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mechanical engineer, university professor and rector
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Miesbach
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1951
Place of death Miesbach