René Thury

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René Thury

René Thury (born April 7, 1860 in Plainpalais near Geneva; † April 23, 1938 in Geneva ) was a Swiss pioneer in electrical engineering . In the professional world, he was known as the “King of direct current”.

Life

His father Jean Marc (or Marc-Antoine) Thury was a teacher of natural history. From 1874 René did an apprenticeship with Emil Bürgin in the Société pour la construction d'instruments de physique (SIP) , of which his father was one of the founding members. When Bürgin left the company around 1876, he became his successor. He also became a laboratory mechanic for Prof. Jacques-Louis Soret at the University of Geneva . What he didn’t like about Bürgin's Dynamo was that the excitation was fed from a battery, and he devised the shunt excitation .

From 1877 he and Nussberg built a steam-powered three-wheeler, the Thury-Nussberg steam car . It was probably one of the first cars built in Switzerland.

To clarify whether it would be worthwhile to participate financially in Edison's inventions , he was sent to the USA in 1880. While the other experts said no, Thury stayed there as Edison's collaborator. There he received a lot of inspiration, but also came to the conclusion that Edison's dynamos could be significantly improved. Back in Geneva, he calculated and built for SIP under license from Edison and Zénobe Gramme Dynamos. He then worked briefly for Bürgin & Alioth and then moved to A. de Meuron & Cuénod as technical manager , where he was able to develop. While the first dynamos were all built with two poles, from 1882 he built six-pole versions, for which he received the gold medal at the Turin exhibition in 1884.

Thury six-pole direct current generator, 1896

After setting up the first Swiss direct current transmission with 500 volts from the Taubenloch Gorge to Bözingen in 1885 , he built the first electric drive for a funicular , the Bürgenstock Railway on Lake Lucerne, which opened in 1888. The electricity was generated in the railway's own power plant and transmitted to the railway's mountain station via a 4.2 km long overhead line. The success of the railway gave him further orders, such as the Stanserhorn Railway and the San Salvatore Railway .

Thury direct current transmission system

René Thury developed a system named after him for the transmission of electrical energy over large distances that works with high-voltage direct current. The high voltage was generated with generators connected in series and used by electric motors also connected in series. In the system, the voltage was dependent on the load, while the electrical current in the line was kept constant.

The following systems were built according to this system:

Thury locomotive

Electric locomotive Le Drac 1903 with the direct current system developed by René Thury

Thury had an electric locomotive built for the Chemin de fer de La Mure coal railway from La Mure to Saint-Georges-de-Commiers near Grenoble , which was delivered in 1903. It was referred to as E1 and was named Le Drac after the river in the valley where the train operated. The four engines of the locomotive together produced 367 kilowatts. The special power system developed by Thury consisted of a three-wire system with a positive 1200 volt phase, a negative 1200 volt phase and a "neutral" conductor between the two voltages. The supply took place via a two-pole overhead line with two pairs of pantographs and the running rails as "neutral conductors". This enabled high power to be transmitted, while at the same time keeping the traction motor voltage within acceptable limits. Four similar machines were delivered between 1905 and 1909 and were in service until 1933.

He also developed the Thury regulator ( régulateur à déclic ).

After leaving in 1910, he worked as a consultant. Most recently in France he built a high-frequency generator for wireless telegraphy transmitters with 40 kilohertz and for outputs of up to 1000 kilowatts.

literature

  • Renè Thury . Obituary. In: Bulletin technique de la Suisse romande . tape 64 , no. 12 , 1938, pp. 166 .

Web links

Commons : René Thury  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (unknown) . In: Schweizerischer Elektrotechnischer Verein (Ed.): Bulletin . tape 40 , 1949, pp. 891 .
  2. ↑ http://w3public.ville-ge.ch/seg/xmlarchives.nsf/Attachments/thuryISAARframeset.htm/$file/thuryISAAR.pdf
  3. ↑ http://www.gtue-oldtimerservice.de/index.php?pid=074,0023,01726,000,00000&navop=archivaz:A&head=Automobil
  4. ^ Alberto Manzini: Eau et energy: l'aqueduc de Ferrari Galliera dans le réseau des aqueducs de la ville de Gênes . In: e-Phaïstos . tape IV , no. 2 , October 1, 2015, ISSN  2262-7340 , p. 22-35 , doi : 10.4000 / ephaistos.736 .
  5. ^ A. Denzler: The electricity works of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Locle . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 25 , 20, 22 and 24, 1895.
  6. ↑ E. Mattern: The utilization of water power: Technical and economic basics . W. Engelmann, 1908, p. 325 ( archive.org ).
  7. ↑ G. Cauderay: Les installations électriques de la ville de Lausanne . 1922, p. 61, 63 , doi : 10.5169 / SEALS-37395 .
  8. ^ A. Rey: Transport d'énergie Moutiers-Lyon par courant continu à 50,000 volts . In: La Houille Blanche . No. October 10 , 1908, ISSN  0018-6368 , p. 229-235 , doi : 10.1051 / lhb / 1908068 .
  9. ↑ Le chemin de fer de La Mure, huitième "merveille du Dauphiné"
  10. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from June 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geneve.ch
personal data
SURNAME Thury, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss pioneer in electrical engineering
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Plainpalais near Geneva
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1938
Place of death Geneva