Prosper L'Orange

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Prosper L'Orange (born February 1, 1876 in Beirut , † July 30, 1939 in Stuttgart ) was a German engineer and inventor. L'Orange developed the first compressorless diesel engine with the help of the prechamber principle . This “pre-chamber” in the diesel engine was registered on March 14, 1909 with his patent DRP 230 517. It enabled him to move from stationary power sources to mobile use, the basis for diesel-powered vehicles.

Life

L'Orange was born in Syria in 1876 as the son of the physician Rudolf Heinrich L'Orange, who at the time was the chief physician of the Johanniter Hospital in Beirut. From 1896 to 1900 he studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Charlottenburg . After graduation, he continued to work at the university as an assistant graduate engineer in the thermal engineering laboratory. His son Rudolf was born on September 18, 1902 in Danzig.

In construction contracts for the introduction of the diesel engine for the Deutz gas engine factory in Cologne, he created the conditions for the construction of the first operational chamber engine , which in 1908 led to DRP 238 832. In October 1908, L'Orange moved to Benz & Cie. to Mannheim, where, in addition to the prechamber principle, he made and further developed three further elementary inventions over the years: the funnel prechamber, the needle injection nozzle and the controllable injection pump .

After four years on the board of the Mannheim Motor Works, which was spun off in 1922 , L'Orange founded the “Prosper L'Orange Ingenieur-Büro” company in Stuttgart in 1926. In 1927 Prosper L'Orange took over the company "REF-Apparatebau" in Feuerbach near Stuttgart, which however had to file for bankruptcy in 1932. In 1933 the company was re-established as "Gebrüder L'Orange Motor Zubehör GmbH" by his sons Harro and Rudolf L'Orange . The successor company, L'Orange GmbH, is today the world market leader in injection technology for large 4-stroke engines. In addition to diesel injection, the company also dealt with gasoline injection. For example, the Daimler-Benz DB 605 aircraft engine of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 was equipped with petrol injection from L'Orange.

Prosper L'Orange was still available for engine research. In 1939, together with Heinrich Buschmann, he founded the Motortechnische Zeitschrift, which is still published today, as an information platform .

In 1939, shortly before his death, he received an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Karlsruhe for his inventions . After the Second World War, his son Rudolf focused the company entirely on diesel injection. The technological leadership in this field was maintained with the development of the pump-nozzle injection from 1944 and the world's first electronic series common rail system in 1997.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patent DE230517 : Internal combustion engine for liquid fuels. Registered on March 14, 1909 , applicant: Benz & Cie, Rheinische Gasmotorenfabrik AG. ‌
  2. ↑ Patent DE238832 : Method for operating internal combustion engines. Registered on July 22, 1908 , applicant: Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz. ‌

Web links

personal data
SURNAME L'Orange, Prosper
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Beirut
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1939
Place of death Stuttgart