Siegfried Marcus

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Siegfried Marcus

Siegfried Samuel Marcus (born September 18, 1831 in Malchin ; † July 1, 1898 in Vienna ) was a mechanic and inventor who lived mainly in Vienna. He is one of the pioneers in the invention of the automobile .

Life

Siegfried Marcus was born as the son of the merchant Liepmann Marcus, who was on the board of the Malchiner Jewish community, and his wife Rosa, née Philip. According to tradition, he completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic in his hometown with the mechanic Lilge. In 1845 he went to Hamburg. Nothing authentic is known about this period. From there he moved to Berlin , where he said he worked in the Siemens and Halske workshop that had just been founded . There are also no primary historical sources about the Berlin period. The Siemens archives contradict Marcus, his name does not appear anywhere. Due to his emigration to Vienna, Marcus did not do any military service in Prussia; It is not known whether fleeing military service was a motive for moving to Vienna.

In 1852 he settled in Vienna and stayed there until his death. He confessed to the Evangelical Lutheran faith. Marcus initially worked in the workshop of the kk privileged mechanic Carl Eduard Kraft and from 1854 as a laboratory assistant and mechanic at the kk Physikalisches Institut . From 1855 to 1856 he worked at the Geological Reichsanstalt . In 1856 he opened his first laboratory in Vienna's Mariahilfer Strasse , which he called Telegraphenbauanstalt . There - and from 1890 on in the nearby Mondscheingasse - devices for the graphic trade, telegraph equipment, electric detonators for military and civil purposes (the Prussian army used its detonator in the Franco-Prussian War), electric lighting fixtures, gas, alcohol and Gasoline lamps and the like. Marcus made a living by producing these devices and selling his numerous patents.

His carburetors , gasoline engines and especially his two motor vehicles made him famous . However, like the engines, he had the latter made by other companies because he lacked the facilities in his small workshop. Marcus invented or developed a lot of it himself.

In total, Marcus has filed around 130 patents in many fields in several countries. He received a silver medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1867 and was also honored by the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I.

  • Portrait of Siegfried Marcus

  • Siegfried Marcus last lived and worked in this house on Mondscheingasse in Vienna's 7th district

  • Marcus monument in front of the Vienna Technical University. The term “inventor of the automobile 1864” refers to the first Marcus car, which, however, dates from 1870 and was already controversial when the monument was erected in 1931.

  • Honorary grave of Siegfried Marcus in the Vienna Central Cemetery

Siegfried Marcus died on July 1, 1898. His heirs were his longtime partner Eleonora Baresch and their two daughters Eleonora Maria and Rosa Maria Anna. He kept the citizenship of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin until his death. Originally buried in the Hütteldorfer Friedhof, Siegfried Marcus rests with his companion in a grave of honor in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 0, row 1, number 101). Numerous Austrian cities and municipalities have a Marcusgasse, -strasse or the like. In 1925 the Marcusgasse in Vienna- Penzing (14th district) was named after him.

Controversy over the importance of Marcus

The tragedy of Siegfried Marcus is based on an invention that was erroneously attributed to him and that made him famous in Austria and at times also worldwide: the alleged invention of the automobile in 1875, well before Daimler and Benz . With his book Siegfried Marcus - an inventor's life from 1961, Gustav Goldberg intensified discussions about the authenticity of the year 1875 for Marcus' second motor vehicle. Hans Seper then began to critically review the subject and finally, in a publication from 1968, cited evidence that the year 1875 was incorrect, which destroyed the illusion of the invention of the automobile by Siegfried Marcus. Recent research by Grössing, Bürbaumer, Hardenberg and others has confirmed Seper.

Many myths were and are still being spread about Siegfried Marcus. For the most part, they go back to the controversial technical-historical work of Franz Feldhaus and Alfred Buberl . Feldhaus 'information on Marcus in the Ruhmesbl Blätter der Technik (1910), in Deutsche Techniker und Ingenieure (1912) etc. are incorrect in many important places without references to the source and have contributed much to the confusion about Marcus' contribution to the invention of the automobile . The main responsibility for incorrectly dating the development of the second car by Marcus to 1875 or originally 1877, however, lies with Ludwig Czischek-Christians. If one follows the descriptions given in the individual records, he seems to have simply mixed up the two cars from 1870 and 1888/89.

One consequence of this mix-up was a decree from the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to remove Marcus from history because of his Jewish descent. As a result, for some, the production of the second Marcus car around 1870 became the reverse of the truth.

Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda

Business sign. S 8100 / 4.7.4.0 / 7 1

Berlin W8, July 4th 1940 Wilhelmplatz 8-9

To the management of Daimler-Benz-AG Stuttgart-Untertürkheim

Subject: Actual inventor of the automobile On your letter of May 30, 1940 Dr.Wo / Fa.

The Bibliographisches Institut and the FA Brockhaus publishing house have been advised that in Meyer's Konversations Lexikon and the Großer Brockhaus it will not be Siegfried Marcus but the two German engineers Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz who are to be named as the creators of the modern motor vehicle. | -

Among other things, it is claimed that he was a close confidante of Werner von Siemens in Berlin , worked together with Prof. Ludwig at the Josephine Institute in Vienna and gave science lessons to the young Crown Prince Rudolf , or even that he built the world's first complete automobile in 1875 and even drove it to Klosterneuburg near Vienna.

Because of his Jewish origins, Marcus was hushed up during the Nazi dictatorship. His memorial was removed from Vienna's Resselpark . The valuable second Marcus car could be protected from access by the authorities thanks to the clever tactics of the Technisches Museum Wien and the owner. After the liberation of Austria, the monument was put back in its old place.

In the short story Der Kilometerfresser , the Austrian poet Emil Ertl set a literary monument to Marcus in 1927 - without reference to reality and without naming him. In it, Marcus is called "Spinnerich" and claims that he was a loom mechanic.

The East German trade journal KFT admitted that the year 1875 for Marcus 'second motor vehicle cannot be authentically documented, but nevertheless demanded that Siegfried Marcus' life's work be recognized as one of the “pioneers of the motor vehicle”. It is true that his vehicle designs had no influence on general vehicle development. However, a decisive contribution to motor vehicles is ascribed to him in connection with his development of magneto ignition and the definition of the gasoline- air mixture as a fuel source.

plant

Motor vehicle

Both economically and for further technical development, Siegfried Marcus' two motor vehicles were of little importance. In order to start production with the advanced second Marcus car, which has all the characteristics of an automobile, a profound reconstruction, especially of the drive, would have been necessary.

  • First Marcus car, 1870 (no longer exists)

  • Second Marcus car, 1888–89, image: Technical Museum Vienna

  • Engine of the second Marcus car

  • Replica of the second Marcus car from 2006. In the background the Vienna Technical Museum

First Marcus car

In 1870, Marcus built his first gasoline- powered road vehicle, which was a motorized handcart. Its engine was a compressionless, direct-acting two - stroke engine , Lenoir system , which only shares the name with today's two-stroke engine. A surface carburetor , which Marcus patented in this form in 1866 , provided the gasoline-air mixture . As such, surface carburetors were not new, so Marcus himself spoke of improvements in his patents. The ignition was carried out by means of an electric magneto ignition. Marcus had already developed and patented several such detonators for various military and civil purposes in the 1860s.

According to contemporary newspaper reports, Marcus carried out test drives in the vicinity of his workshop with this car, which lacked essential components of an automobile such as brakes, steering, clutch and the like.

Thanks to handwritten notes on two photographs, the vehicle can be dated to 1870, in contradiction to a driving report from 1904, which mentions 1866. The year 1864 is also mentioned in some reports without there being any reliable information about it. This so-called “First Marcus Car” is the first gasoline-powered road vehicle that has authentic historical sources. Neither the car nor the engine have survived. However, there are some faithful replicas, such as in the local museum of Marcus' birthplace Malchin. The eldest is in the Siegfried Marcus vocational school in Vienna, whose engine is operational according to witness reports.

Second Marcus car

Without this vehicle and its erroneous dating to 1875, and thus before Benz and Daimler , today Marcus would probably only be known to a small group of people interested in the history of technology. "Whether his second car was ready to drive as early as 1875 or not until 1888/89 was uncertain for a long time; today, the later date is considered certain". This design already had all the components of a motor vehicle. The vehicle itself has belonged to the ÖAMTC since 1898 and is on loan at the Technical Museum in Vienna. The second Marcus car was built by the Märky, Bromovsky & Schulz company in 1888/89 in Adamsthal , Moravia. It was presented to a broad public for the first time in 1898 at the Kaiser Franz Joseph anniversary exhibition. The single-cylinder 1.5-liter four-stroke engine developed 0.75 hp and gave the vehicle a speed of 5-8 km / h on a level, paved road. The electrical low-voltage breakaway ignition ( magnetic ignition , patent 1883) and the spray brush carburetor (patents 1883 and 1887) were innovative . Due to the modest mileage, it is also necessary to speak of a prototype here. In 1950, Alfred Buberl put the car into drivable condition. Since then he has raced in front of an audience several times. As the oldest gasoline-powered automobile that has been preserved in running order, it is a listed building. In 2006, the Vienna Technical Museum, with the help of several sponsors, including the Czech company ADAST, the successor to the former manufacturer Märky, Bromovsky & Schulz, made a true-to-the-original, operational replica. He takes part in events such as classic car fairs and meetings several times a year.

Ignition system

A pioneering achievement by Marcus was the invention of the magneto ignition , for which he applied for a patent in Germany in 1883. The patent shows that as early as 1873 he had proposed generating electricity using a magnetic inductor operated by the motor itself. Both Benz and Daimler, on the other hand, worked on other ignition concepts that could not prevail; on the contrary, the magneto ignition from Marcus was picked up and improved by Robert Bosch in 1887 , so that one of the greatest technical problems of early automobiles could be solved with it.

Internal combustion engines and carburetors

A total of ten built Marcus engines are known. The first was created in 1870 and was also used for the first Marcus cart, the motorized hand cart. Except for the last four engines, which were built from 1887 to 1888 by Märky, Bromovsky & Schulz in Adamsthal, Moravia (today: Adamov, Czech Republic) as four-stroke engines, the Marcus engines were compressionless, direct-acting two-stroke petrol engines based on the model of the Lenoir gas engine and thus differed significantly from the four-stroke engine of Nicolaus August Otto .

Three four-stroke engines have been preserved. The oldest of these is a stationary engine and is located in the Vienna Technical Museum. When the second Marcus car was brought into drivable condition in 1950, the ignition magnet was removed from this engine and installed in the car, as the original magnet was missing there. The second engine is built into the car and has a very similar design to the stationary engine, an "upside down stationary engine". The third engine is in the Technical Museum in Prague. The fourth four-stroke engine was used for the "Locomobile" (see picture) and is lost. The magnetos and carburettors of the engines were innovative. In the beginning, Marcus also used the surface carburetors common in the 1860s / 70s, on which he held patents for improvements from the mid-1860s. Marcus actually developed these carburettors for lighting purposes. They were to serve as a location-independent generator of gas for the gas lamps that were common at the time. From 1883, Marcus used spray brush carburetors that he had invented, i.e. atomizers and not evaporators like surface carburetors. These carburetors were completely new.

From the beginning he used magnetos of his own design and not galvanic or glow or flame tube igniters. In the four-stroke engines obtained, electrodes protrude into the combustion chamber, the separation of which generates the ignition spark by being torn off.

  • Engine of the first car from 1870. Marcus wrote on the photo with his own hand: “... designed by Siegfr. Marcus 1870 "

  • From a brochure by Märky, Bromovsky and Schulz from 1888. Nothing is known about actual production.

  • From a brochure by Märky, Bromovsky and Schulz from 1888. Nothing is known about actual production.

  • Engine of the second Marcus car, built by Märky, Bromovsky and Schulz in 1888

  • Four-stroke stationary engine from 1887, built by Märky, Bromovsky and Schulz. The structure is very similar to the engine of the second Marcus car, Technisches Museum Wien

  • Four-stroke stationary engine from 1888, standing construction, Technical Museum Prague

  • Patent drawing of the brush carburetor with preheating, patented in Austria in 1887. Exhaust gases warm up the gasoline in order to prevent the mixture from becoming lean due to evaporative cooling. The brush rotating in the "petrol tank" sprays the fuel. This carburetor is also in the second Marcus car.

  • Spray brush carburetor of the stationary engine from 1887. The drive in the foreground lets the brush rotate.

  • Marcus carburetor dismantled: The atomizer brush rotated in the carburetor housing (driven by a sewing machine (= round) belt), which sprayed the fuel against a heated pipe that led to the engine. A slider regulated the air supply, thus depending on the speed and power in the mixture ratio from "rich" to "lean".

The engine construction of Siegfried Marcus was meaningless both economically and for further technical progress. All engines were built by third parties, Marcus did not have enough resources for them. Sources such as a request from his last engine builder to the estate suggest that Marcus did not earn money with the engines, but lost it. Its carburetors also had no influence on the further development of the internal combustion engine. In 1889 the German patents on carburettors and igniters were sold to Holland for an unknown amount, but were never used there. In 1890 Maybach and Daimler developed the spray nozzle carburetor, which is still used today, designs that proved to be superior to those of Marcus.

A pioneering achievement, however, was his discovery of the gasoline-air mixture as a suitable fuel source for motor vehicles, for which he applied for a German patent in 1882. Experimental engines at that time were still operated with luminous gas .

Mechanical and electrotechnical apparatus, tools and the like

The handicraft production of various instruments, apparatus, lamps, fuses for civil and military purposes, devices for the graphic trade, tools and the like was Marcus' most important field of activity. This made him a very well-known “all-rounder” in what was then Vienna. For this time it had a considerable "media response", especially in electrical engineering journals. The well-known social philosopher and technician Josef Popper-Lynkeus described him as the only one who could build dynamos in what was then Vienna.

In 1857 he received a patent for the improvement of safety valves on steam boilers.

At the beginning of the 1860s, Ludwig von Benedek , the later hapless Austrian general von Königgrätz , tried out his pointer telegraphs for the Austrian army. At Siemens & Halske in Berlin Marcus was able to sell a patent for an opponent. A rather obscure device for the direct generation of electricity from heat, called a thermopile (a thermogenerator with an efficiency of only 0.0035 percent), he was able to sell for good money to the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

  • Telegraph relief writer, 1861, source: Museum for Post and Communication, Frankfurt am Main

  • Viennese fuse, 1864, image: Technical Museum Vienna

  • “Antigraph”, approx. 1850, a device for drawing in mirror image on printing plates

  • “ Pantograph ” from 1855, a device for enlarging drawings, corresponds functionally to a so-called cork's bill

  • Pantograph 1855, in a different design

  • lock

  • "Bolt", a tool for thread cutting

  • "Locomobile" 1888, a mobile dynamo powered by a Marcus engine. On the far right of the picture Siegfried Marcus

Some of it has been preserved, for the most part in the Vienna Technical Museum. The Malchiner Heimatmuseum is also showing a small but fine display of items on loan from the Vienna Technical Museum in Marcus' hometown.

Contemporary newspaper reports about Siegfried Marcus

Siegfried Marcus received considerable press coverage, especially in local trade magazines, but also in daily newspapers. Back then, what still applies today: Not everything that is in the newspapers corresponds to the facts.

The first note is found in 1855 concerning the presentation of his antigraph in the Imperial and Royal Academy of Sciences .

The "Austrian weekly journal for science, art and public life" reported that on January 22nd, 1863 in a meeting of mathem.-naturwiss. The class of the Vienna Academy presented the model of an electric motor he had invented, which differs significantly from all similar machines known so far, both in terms of its principle and its performance .

In 1874, Johann Friedrich Radinger mentions two compressionless engines built in Vienna, namely those by Julius Hock and Siegfried Marcus, although they were not represented at the exhibition. The information about the Marcus engine is summarized, "The machine ... does not work with atomized, but with volatilized petroleum." newly generated. "The control of the mixture inlet is also described:" ... consistently forced movements of the closures (rotary valve) and not self-acting flaps ". Radinger saw the engine running too.

Moritz Ritter von Pichler (1847–1897) gave a lecture in Vienna in January 1888: “Siegfried Marcus's Explosion Engine ”, which was published in June in the weekly journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects . The lecture contains a chronology of the work of Marcus, which begins with the engine of the first Marcus car, the motorized handcart from 1870. Also the above Engine from 1873 is included in the list: "In 1873 Sigl built a similar construction as a stable engine." The civil engineer, who like Marcus lives in Vienna and also works for Marcus, gave the lecture on the four-stroke internal combustion engine created by Marcus around 1888 . Some mentions are particularly interesting, e.g. B. the reference to the space-saving design. "The in Fig. 1 and 2 illustrated statement was made speciellen, principiante economic and elected not belong here reasons of Marcus." He continues, "In 1882, as a transition to new construction, was as a preliminary one Otto -Gasmaschine petroleum with vaporiser and an ignition device rebuilt with great success ”. Incidentally, the absence of the second Marcus car in the chronological listing of the Marcus engines was one of Gustav Goldbeck's arguments to date the second Marcus car to "after 1888".

In “Ackermann's Illustrierte Wiener Gewerbe-Zeitung” (Petroleum - Motoren, 1890) there is talk of journeys with two passengers (sic!) In September 1870 on Mariahilfer Strasse, Neubaugasse, Westbahnstrasse and Kaiserstrasse. “... and older guests of Cafe Gabesam may still remember the nightly drive of this peculiar vehicle (note: with the first Marcus car). Marcus' car can go forwards and backwards, it is activated by a simple lever (sic!) And is perfectly suitable for the streets. ”The Cafe Gabesam, once located at the intersection of Mariahilfer Straße and today's Andreasgasse was a hangout of Marcus. “Is perfectly suitable for the streets” is a huge exaggeration.

The patent claim from 1883 (spray brush carburetor, improvements to the magneto-electric ignition device) was published in 1884 as a special edition of the Zeitschrift für Elektrotechnik. “The main advantage of the gas engine over the steam or hot air engine is that it takes its food cold. Due to this circumstance, there is no loss of time, which is associated with the heating up ”.

Marcus did not play an economically decisive role in the field of internal combustion engines. Most of what has been published is about Marcus' electrical engineering work. Marcus' pioneering work on “dividing electricity”, which means supplying various consumers with one power source, was the subject of several publications and touched on a problem that was very topical at the time. The "Neue Freie Presse" wrote in Vienna on October 30, 1878 : "Despite the extraordinary properties of electrical machine light, there are two main obstacles to its general use, including for lighting... The first is the imperfection of the lamps ... the second is the fact that every single electric light requires a special magneto-electric generator. ... A Viennese technician, Mr. Siegfried Marcus, actually solved the problem, which is very important for lighting technology, earlier, albeit quietly, and had applied for the granting of the relevant patents in all countries ... "

Two weeks before Marcus' death, Prof. Ing. Czischeck published the article "Collective exhibition of the Austrian automobile manufacturers" in "Officielle Mittheilungen des Oesterreichischen Automobilclub". In it, the author reports on the vehicle that was presented to the public for the first time and is now known as the second Marcus car. “A project from the year 1875 (sic!) For a Marcus car drawn up by the machine works in Blansko (sic!) On the basis of this test car shows an even more perfect solution, for example the starting device for the engine from the driver's seat. A spindle brake on the driver's right hand acts with wooden jaws on the drive wheels ”.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Norbert Böttcher: Siegfried Marcus. Eminent engineer and versatile inventor; from Malchin in Mecklenburg to Vienna . in "Jewish miniatures", New Synagogue Berlin, Hentrich & Hentrich Verlag, Teetz 2005, page 16ff.
  2. ↑ Entry of conscription form 1856, KB Laimgrube 172, WStLA
  3. ↑ Hans Seper: Back when the horses shied, Vienna 1968
  4. ^ Horst Hardenberg: Siegfried Marcus. Myth and Reality (Scientific Series of the DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives; Vol. 3). Delius & Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2000, pages 333ff, 354ff.
  5. ↑ Ludwig Czischek: automobiles. Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects 50, 1898, pages 265–270 and 281–286. and Ludwig Czischek: Collective exhibition of the Austrian automobile manufacturers in the rotunda, attached to the club organ of the Austrian Touring Club 1, No. 6, June 15, 1898
  6. ↑ SIEGFRIED MARCUS His automobile, his engines. In: Motor vehicle technology 1/1964, pp. 14-16 and 11/1964, p. 434.
  7. ↑ a b c Letters from Märky, Bromovsky & Schulz from January 17, 1901 and February 1, 1901 to Prof. Czischek-Christen, Vienna
  8. ↑ Two photographs from September 3, 1870, one of which is signed by Marcus himself: “Petroleum (gasoline) engine for operating a road car with a spring device to neutralize the blasts of the explosion - designed by Siegfr. Marcus 1870. "
  9. ^ Österreich Lexikon, Vol. 2, Vienna 2004
  10. ↑ Marcus-Wagen, original and replica, published by the Technisches Museum Wien, 2006, p. 18ff.
  11. ↑ Horst Hardenberg: Siegfried Marcus, Myth and Reality (Scientific Series of the DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives ; Vol. 3). Delius & Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2000, pages 241ff, 249ff and 321ff.
  12. ↑ SIEGFRIED MARCUS · His automobile, his engines. In: Motor vehicle technology 1/1964, pp. 14-16 and 11/1964, p. 434
  13. ↑ Marcus-Wagen, original and replica, published by the Technisches Museum Wien, 2006, p. 26.
  14. ↑ Marcus-Wagen, original and replica, published by the Technisches Museum Wien, 2006, p. 16.
  15. ↑ SIEGFRIED MARCUS His automobile, his engines. In: Motor vehicle technology 1/1964, pp. 14-16 and 11/1964, p. 434.
  16. ^ Wiener Zeitung , April 1, 1857, page 932, right column
  17. ↑ Horst Hardenberg: Siegfried Marcus, Myth and Reality (Scientific Series of the DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives ; Vol. 3). Delius & Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2000, page 93
  18. ^ Imperial Academy of Sciences. In:  Wiener Zeitung , August 4, 1855, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz
  19. ↑ Expansion of the manufacture of sewing machines in the United States of North America. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 168, 1863, Miszelle 1, p. 232.
  20. ^ Johann Friedrich Radinger: Die Motoren (Group XII, Section I). Official exhibition report published by the General Direction of the 1873 World Exhibition. Vienna 1874
  21. ↑ Moritz Ritter von Pichler: "The Explosion Engine by Siegfried Marcus", weekly of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects, 13 (1888) 221-223
  22. ↑ "Petroleum-Motoren", Ackermann's Illustrierte Gewerbe Zeitung 19 (1890) 253-254
  23. ^ Siegfried Marcus: The gas and petroleum engine. In: Journal of Electrical Engineering. 1884, XVII issue
  24. ^ Neue Freie Presse , Vienna, October 30, 1878
  25. ↑ Ludwig Czischek: Collective exhibition of the Austrian automobile manufacturers in the rotunda, attached to the club organ of the Austrian Touring Club 1, No. 6, June 15, 1898

literature

Web links

Commons : Siegfried Marcus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Marcus, Siegfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marcus, Siegfried Samuel (full name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION German-Austrian technician and inventor
BIRTH DATE September 18, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Malchin
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1898
PLACE OF DEATH Vienna