Richard Koss

Richard Koss , also Richard Koß , (born June 5, 1850 in Königsberg , † February 2, 1932 in Münster ) was a German civil engineer and Prussian construction officer .

Youth and education

Koss was a son of the businessman Julius Ferdinand Koss and his wife Karoline geb. Hardt. After graduating from secondary school in Königsberg, he first studied medicine at the university there. From 1871 he began studying at the Berlin Building Academy . Immediately after passing the building management exam in 1874, he became head of the Memel sea ​​and port district , initially as a substitute for the sick head. Here he was responsible for the construction of the north pier of the port in Memel. Further stations followed in Frankfurt am Main , Berlin and Stralsund before he passed the master builder examination in 1882.

Stay in Turkey

At the request of the Ottoman government , Koss was asked to equip palaces and the pasha's harem building as well as an arsenal with lightning rods. On May 14, 1884, he began his journey to Constantinople via Vienna and Trieste . During his activity in Constantinople he was subordinate to the Minister of War. The lightning rods were manufactured according to his plans in the artillery workshops in Tophane and were the first to be used in the Ottoman Empire at that time. After installing the lightning rods was not enough for him, he also taught engineering at the Hasköi War School. Furthermore, he made drawings of existing palace buildings after measuring. In order to get married in Germany, he applied to his employer for leave of absence, which he was granted with the remark "he himself (the war minister) had three wives, but he wished he had none". In September 1888, Koss returned to Berlin after all German specialists had not been paid their salaries for several months.

Port construction in Sassnitz

Koss was given the management of the construction of the new fishing port in Sassnitz . In his opinion, the planned capacities were far too small and he submitted plans and reasons to the ministry for an expansion to the size that was actually built later, including a ferry port for traffic to Denmark and Sweden. These plans were immediately and completely rejected by the ministry. Koss intervened through the banker, whom he personally knew, Adolph von Hansemann , son of the founder of the Berlin Disconto-Gesellschaft . Hansemann informed politicians close to him, and the now enlarged port project was approved in a supplementary budget. In 1895 Koss became a port construction inspector in Stralsund , but left the civil service before the official inauguration of the port in Sassnitz.

The water train

In 1896 Koss resigned from the civil service and worked for international construction companies, in 1906 he returned to the civil service and became the deputy head of the technical department of the Dortmund-Ems Canal , based in Münster. In 1907 he was granted a patent for a "water train". In principle, the aim was to significantly reduce the turbulence caused by the propeller on the canal bed and walls. Successful towing tests were carried out on behalf of the state on the Haase near Meppen and on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Siemens then bought a license to use this patent. During the First World War, Koss was the local representative of the shipping department in the General Staff and was responsible for water transport from the North Sea to the Swiss border. Rails for the water railway were installed in the Rhine-Marne Canal in Alsace-Lorraine . Due to the end of the war, it was no longer commissioned.

Orders and decorations

• Ottoman Medschidje Order II. Class with a star
• Prussian Order of the Red Eagle

Fonts

• The water train. A towing system on canals and rivers without using the banks. De Gruyter, Berlin 1927
• Memories from my life. Unpublished private print, ca.1932

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Richard Koss: Memories from my life. P. 111.
2. ↑ Richard Koss: Memories from my life. P. 197.

Web links

• Description and drawing of the principle of the water railway