Rudolf Schifkorn

The collapsed Schifkorn Bridge over the Pruth near Czernowitz on March 4, 1868

Rudolf Schifkorn (born January 19, 1817 in Bruck an der Mur , Austrian Empire , † March 16, 1882 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ) was an Austrian technician .

Live and act

Rudolf Schifkorn was a son of Maximilian Schifkorn, a businessman, civil servant and owner of a boys' boarding school in Graz , and his second wife, Sophia, née. from Huber. He attended the model secondary school in Graz from 1823 to 1830, apprenticed to a gallant carpenter in 1831 and completed a technical degree in England. From there he probably came back to the continent with the English designer of the Budapest Chain Bridge as an assistant in its execution (1839–1845). In 1850 he was appointed engineer assistant 2nd class by the Ministry of Trade and Public Buildings , and in 1851 he was employed by the Austrian post office and appointed works manager of the Vienna telegraph workshop. Schifkorn held this post until it was dissolved in 1872.

In 1853 he was granted the privilege of a new bridge system with cast-iron and wrought-iron support parts, and in 1869 one for further improvements to it. But Schifkorn also demonstrated his technical skills in other areas: in 1859, as part of his service, he carried out the sensational laying of an undersea cable along the coast from Trieste to Venice . In 1871 he received a privilege to improve the paper guidance of the Morse telegraph writing apparatus , and in 1877 another for the case lock he had developed. He has been recognized for his inventions at several international exhibitions.

The collapsed bridge. With 2-axle freight train wagons.

With the development of his bridge construction system, he initially found the greatest recognition among experts. From 1856 to 1868 116 railway bridges were built for the Austrian railways according to his system, his calculations and plans. He was already in negotiations with British and American companies to take over his bridge system when, on March 4, 1868, when the bridge over the Prut near Czernowitz collapsed, its design flaws became known. This led to the replacement of all bridges built according to his system until 1894, as these were statically overdetermined and were in danger of collapsing due to the lateral displacement of the junctions.

Schifkorn bridges

Schifkorn Bridge over the Pruth

The railway bridge over the river Iser in the network of the south-north German connecting railway between Turnau and Eisenbrod in Northern Bohemia was the first bridge built according to the Schifkorn system in 1857. Three bridges of the same construction on the Bohemian Western Railway from Prague to Furth im Wald were built between 1860 and 1862. In 1872 there were already around 110 Schifkorn bridges with 180 girders.

Main elements of the Schifkorn bridges

The Schifkorn girders were a replica of Howesch's lattice girders with wooden crossed struts and artificially prestressed iron vertical bars . The cast-iron struts and the cast-iron upper chord consisted of short pieces that reached from node to node and supported themselves against round or angular cross bolts. The individual pieces of the upper chord were held together by continuous wrought-iron longitudinal rails that had to be clamped to the end posts. Higher girders with four times the number of divisions were given a central chord, also consisting of tensioning rails, connecting the central nodes. The lower chord and the vertical round iron bars were made of wrought iron. Each beam consisted of two to four walls connected by common cross bolts.

Since no rivets were required, the bridges could be erected quickly, so that many Schifkorn bridges were built for the Austrian railways in the 1860s. After a fracture test carried out by Professor Rebhann in the Zöptau ironworks , Wilhelm Bukowsky, the engineer of the imperial-royal privileged Austrian State Railway Company , explained in 1865 that Schifkorn had made significant construction errors in the transfer of Howe's system from wood to iron: Except for the Professional cross-section determination should aim for a better detailed construction of the upper girders, the elimination of the subdivision of the diagonal struts, the omission of the numerous non-load-bearing components and, last but not least, a professional construction of the crossbeams. After the possible consequences of the construction errors of the Schifkorn bridges due to the collapse of the bridge over the Pruth near Czernowitz became obvious, all Schifkorn bridges were torn down and replaced by more stable iron bridges.

Lemberg-Chernivtsi Railway: Bridge over the Dniester near Halicz
Lemberg-Chernivtsi Railway: Bridge over the Pruth near Lubkowce
Lemberg-Chernivtsi Railway: Bridge over the Schwarze Bystrzyca
Railway bridge over the Bug near Neudeck
Klabawa Viaduct near Chrást during the replacement in 1892

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c R. Keimel: Schifkorn, Rudolf. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 128.
↑ ^a ^b Hans Pottgießer: The Pruth Bridge near Chernivtsi according to the Schifkorn system. In: Railway bridges from two centuries. Birkhäuser, Basel 1985, pp. 163-165, doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-0348-6662-0_25
↑ The railway bridge over the Jizera river - Rakousy municipality.
^ ^A ^b ^c Otto Lueger : Lexicon of the entire technology and its auxiliary sciences , Bd. 7 Stuttgart, Leipzig 1909, p. 693. Link
^ Lecture by Professor Rebhann at the meeting of the Austrian Engineering Association on March 4, 1865
^ Wilhelm Bukowsky: About the iron Schifkorn'schen bridges. In: Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects , XVII. Volume, 1865, Issue V, pp. 93–100 ( online ; PDF; 3.3 MB)
↑ Joseph Zuffer: bridge building. In: Dr. Leon Ritter v. Bilinski. Emil Ritter v. Guttenberg, Wilhelm Ast, Franz Bauer, Alfred Birk, Theodor Bock, Karl Gölsdorf, Franz Mähling, Josef Schlüsselberger and Hermann Strach (eds.): History of the railways of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. II. Volume. Vienna, Teschen, Leipzig. Karl Prochaska. KUK Hofbuchhandlung & k. UK court printing company. MDCCCXCVIII (1898). Pp. 281 and 285-286.

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Schifkorn - Collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Schifkorn, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian technician
DATE OF BIRTH	January 19, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bruck an der Mur , Austrian Empire
DATE OF DEATH	March 16, 1882
Place of death	Vienna , Austria-Hungary

[ÖBL-1] R. Keimel: Schifkorn, Rudolf. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 128.

[Pottgießer-2] Hans Pottgießer: The Pruth Bridge near Chernivtsi according to the Schifkorn system. In: Railway bridges from two centuries. Birkhäuser, Basel 1985, pp. 163-165, doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-0348-6662-0_25

[3] The railway bridge over the Jizera river - Rakousy municipality.

[Lueger-4] A ^b ^c Otto Lueger : Lexicon of the entire technology and its auxiliary sciences , Bd. 7 Stuttgart, Leipzig 1909, p. 693. Link

[5] Lecture by Professor Rebhann at the meeting of the Austrian Engineering Association on March 4, 1865

[6] Wilhelm Bukowsky: About the iron Schifkorn'schen bridges. In: Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects , XVII. Volume, 1865, Issue V, pp. 93–100 ( online ; PDF; 3.3 MB)

[7] Joseph Zuffer: bridge building. In: Dr. Leon Ritter v. Bilinski. Emil Ritter v. Guttenberg, Wilhelm Ast, Franz Bauer, Alfred Birk, Theodor Bock, Karl Gölsdorf, Franz Mähling, Josef Schlüsselberger and Hermann Strach (eds.): History of the railways of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. II. Volume. Vienna, Teschen, Leipzig. Karl Prochaska. KUK Hofbuchhandlung & k. UK court printing company. MDCCCXCVIII (1898). Pp. 281 and 285-286.