William Donald Scherzer
William Donald Scherzer ( January 27, 1858 - July 20, 1893 ) was an American engineer.
Scherzer's parents immigrated from Germany in 1847. Scherzer was born on January 27, 1858, the second son in a family of three sons and one daughter in Peru , Illinois .
Scherzer received his primary education in public schools. He showed talents in arts and math. After elementary school, Scherzer attended Professor Eggers' private school for college preparatory courses at the age of 15. At the age of 18, Scherzer studied civil engineering at the Polytechnicum College in Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated from the Zurich engineering college in 1880. He developed a special bridge design, the roller bascule bridge , in which the drive attaches to the pivot point of the system and moves it horizontally. Well-known examples of this type of construction are the Pegasus Bridge and the Pamban (railway) bridge .
The lifting bridge patent was granted in 1893. Due to Scherzer's early demise, his brother Albert took over the Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge patents and initiated 14 other related patents for rolling lift bridges . By 1916, the Scherzer Company had built 175 of these bridges nationwide in the USA.
Web links
swell
- ^ Campbell, John A. (1902). A Biographical History, with Portraits, of Prominent Men of the Great West. Western biographical and engraving Company.
- ↑ Schweizerische Bauzeitung, Volume 69/70 (1917), Issue 7, page 78
- ↑ https://patents.google.com/patent/US511713?oq=William+Donald+Scherzer+1893
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Scherzer, William Donald |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | american engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 27, 1858 |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 20, 1893 |