Josef Ressel
Encyclopedia
Propeller
A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...
.
Ressel was born in the Austrian monarchy in Chrudim
Chrudim
Chrudim is a city in eastern Bohemia, in the Pardubice region of the Czech Republic.The oldest archaeological findings which provide first signs of the settlement in this area date back to the 5th millennium BC. Various cultures succeeded one on another in the territory of today’s town of Chrudim...
, Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
. His father was a German native speaker, while his mother's mothertongue was Czech. After studying in Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
(gymnasium), České Budějovice (artillery school) and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(university) he worked for the Austrian government as a forest engineer in the more southern parts of the monarchy, including in Motovun
Motovun
Motovun is a village in central Istria, Croatia. The population of the village itself is 531, with a total of 983 residents in the municipality ; 442 of the residents have Italian as their mother language...
, Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
(modern-day Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
).His work was to secure a supply of quality wood for Austro - Hungarian Navy.He worked in Landstrass (Kostanjevica
Kostanjevica na Krki
Kostanjevica na Krki, also Kostanjevica ob Krki , is a small town and a municipality in the historic Lower Carniola region of southern Slovenia. It is today part of the Lower Sava statistical region....
on the Krka
Krka (Slovenia)
The Krka is a river in the historic Lower Carniola region of Slovenia, a right tributary of the Sava.It sources at Gradiček near the village of Krka, about southwest of Ivančna Gorica and around southeast of Ljubljana, before flowing southeast...
river in Carniola
Carniola
Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...
in modern-day Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
), where he tested his ship propellers for the first time. In 1821 he was transferred to Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
(modern-day Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
), the biggest port of the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
where his tests were successful. He was awarded a propeller patent in 1827. He modified a steam-powered boat Civetta by 1829 and test-drove it in the Trieste harbor at six knots before the steam conduits exploded. Because of this misfortune, the police banned further testing. The explosion was not caused by the tested propeller as many believed at the time.
As early as 1804, the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
John Fitch
John Fitch (inventor)
John Fitch was an American inventor, clockmaker, and silversmith who, in 1787, built the first recorded steam-powered boat in the United States...
is credited with a screw propeller, which was unsuccessful. In 1836, the Englishman Francis Pettit Smith
Francis Pettit Smith
Sir Francis Pettit Smith was an English inventor and, along with Frédéric Sauvage and John Ericsson, one of a number of people with a claim to having been the inventor of the screw propeller...
tested a screw propeller similar to Ressel's. The first transatlantic journey of a ship powered by a screw-propeller was by S.S."Great Britain" in 1845. Propeller design stabilized in the 1880s.
Besides having been called "the inventor of the propeller", he was also called the inventor of the steamship and a monument to him in a park in Vienna
commemorates him as “the one and only inventor of the screw propeller and steam shipping”.
Among other Ressel's inventions are pneumatic post and ball and cylinder bearings. He was granted numerous patents during his life.
He died in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, and was buried in the St. Christopher Cemetery in the Bežigrad
Bežigrad
The Bežigrad District or simply Bežigrad is a city district in the northern part of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It encompasses the area between the southern rail line to the south, the Upper Carniola rail line to the west, the highway loop to the north, and Šmartno Street and the Žale...
district.
Literature
- Erhard Marschner: "Josef Ressel. Erfinder der Schiffsschraube - Seine Vorfahren und Nachkommen"
[ Josef Ressel. One of the designers of a ship's propeller - its ancestors and descendants] , 1979, ISBN 3-7686-6016-8. - Václav Gutwirth: "Vynálezce Josef Ressel"
[ Inventor Josef Ressel] , 1943, Prague. - Jiří Charvát, Pavel Kobetič et al.: "Josef Ressel a Chrudim"
[ Josef Ressel and Chrudim] , 1986, published by the Chrudim Regional MuseumChrudim Regional MuseumChrudim Regional Museum collects historical materials and artisan works related to the area around city of Chrudim, Czech Republic .-History:A museum club in Chrudim was set up in 1865...
. The museum keeps collection of porpotions about Ressel.
External links
- Ressel Monument in Vienna, Austria a Video of his monument and his poor Austrian inventor colleagues.
- Comprehensive biography
- Short biography
- History of propeller inventions