Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
Ironically, a forester invents the - ship's propeller!
On February 11, 1827, the Austro-Hungarian forest manager (district forester) from Ljubljana, who was born in Bohemia in 1793, Josepf Ressel (or Josef Ludvík František Ressel) received...
...from the Imperial and Royal Patent Office at Vienna the patent for his invention, the "wheel in the form of an endless screw driven by external force, by means of which a ship can be moved at sea and in flowing water"...:
The man - a forester! A pure landlubber! - didn't invent anything other than the ship's propeller as we know it today!
Since the British James Watt...
...in 1769 the actually invented by Thomas Newcomen...
...and had already perfected the steam engine installed in a coal mine in Staffordshire in 1712, there were various ideas about using the new - wind-independent - drive for ships as well.
There was no shortage of ideas...
... only the practice remained unsatisfactory!
The various ship's propellers were either too big and bulky, too heavy - or their efficiency was too low.
The only thing that worked to some extent was the paddle wheel drive:
However, this type of propulsion took up a lot of space and significantly reduced the seakeeping characteristics of a ship!
In addition, when the ship rocked at sea, one of the lateral drive wheels always stuck out of the water and the steam engines of the time simply could not withstand this constant change between zero and full load!
An unsolved problem until the landlubber from Austria took care of it.
Ressel took a short segment of the so-called "Archimedean screw" for his ship propulsion, which the ancient Romans already knew and used to transport water uphill...:
Ressel chatted to two Trentino businessmen, Enrico Julian...
...and Oswaldo Tositti...
...a stripped-down barque for cheap money and invested 60 guilders (today about 1,360 €) to have a bronze screw cast by the blacksmith Franz Hermann.
It was installed in the scrap bark, provided with a hand crank drive - and it worked!
After this successful trial run, Ressel came into contact with the Swiss businessman Carlo d'Ottavio Fontana (1774-1832).
He held out the prospect of building a passenger ship with steam and screw propulsion and promised Ressel a share of the expected income. However, he made the transfer of the patent, which was valid until 1830, a condition.
With money from Fontana, Ressel then had the master shipbuilder Vincenzo Zanon in Trieste build the almost 20 meter long test ship "Civetta" (= "Little Owl")...
...install a steam engine that drove an enlarged example of his ship's propeller...:
It worked - the "Civetta" ran perfectly!
The issue of granting a patent was then just a formality.
Everything could have been fine if a badly soldered steam pipe hadn't burst during a later public test drive on the "Civetta"!
The ship had to be towed back into port in front of thousands of spectators and the press - and Ressel and Fontana became bitter enemies, who fought expensive lawsuits for years. Meanwhile, Ressel's patent was dormant.
His groundbreaking invention has since been stolen and exploited by others who have reaped fame, money and recognition for it!
The first screw steamer, which arrived in Trieste in 1840, came from England and was also built there - a deep humiliation for Ressel!
He died - almost forgotten - on October 10, 1857 in Laibach (today: Ljubljana), after having spent the rest of his life in the KuK forest service - he had been careful enough never to quit his job.
Later he was remembered in Austria:
There is a monument of him at the Vienna Karlsplatz...
...a commemorative plaque hangs on the scoolhouse, he visited, and which still exists today...
...and until the introduction of the "Euro" Ressel's portrait and a picture of his "Chivetta" adorned the front and back of the 500 Schilling banknote...:
I got to know the story in detail in the mid-90s, when Ressel's great-great-granddaughter Brigitte Ressel-Fast was a good colleague of mine at that time...
On February 11, 1827, the Austro-Hungarian forest manager (district forester) from Ljubljana, who was born in Bohemia in 1793, Josepf Ressel (or Josef Ludvík František Ressel) received...
...from the Imperial and Royal Patent Office at Vienna the patent for his invention, the "wheel in the form of an endless screw driven by external force, by means of which a ship can be moved at sea and in flowing water"...:
The man - a forester! A pure landlubber! - didn't invent anything other than the ship's propeller as we know it today!
Since the British James Watt...
...in 1769 the actually invented by Thomas Newcomen...
...and had already perfected the steam engine installed in a coal mine in Staffordshire in 1712, there were various ideas about using the new - wind-independent - drive for ships as well.
There was no shortage of ideas...
... only the practice remained unsatisfactory!
The various ship's propellers were either too big and bulky, too heavy - or their efficiency was too low.
The only thing that worked to some extent was the paddle wheel drive:
However, this type of propulsion took up a lot of space and significantly reduced the seakeeping characteristics of a ship!
In addition, when the ship rocked at sea, one of the lateral drive wheels always stuck out of the water and the steam engines of the time simply could not withstand this constant change between zero and full load!
An unsolved problem until the landlubber from Austria took care of it.
Ressel took a short segment of the so-called "Archimedean screw" for his ship propulsion, which the ancient Romans already knew and used to transport water uphill...:
Ressel chatted to two Trentino businessmen, Enrico Julian...
...and Oswaldo Tositti...
...a stripped-down barque for cheap money and invested 60 guilders (today about 1,360 €) to have a bronze screw cast by the blacksmith Franz Hermann.
It was installed in the scrap bark, provided with a hand crank drive - and it worked!
After this successful trial run, Ressel came into contact with the Swiss businessman Carlo d'Ottavio Fontana (1774-1832).
He held out the prospect of building a passenger ship with steam and screw propulsion and promised Ressel a share of the expected income. However, he made the transfer of the patent, which was valid until 1830, a condition.
With money from Fontana, Ressel then had the master shipbuilder Vincenzo Zanon in Trieste build the almost 20 meter long test ship "Civetta" (= "Little Owl")...
...install a steam engine that drove an enlarged example of his ship's propeller...:
It worked - the "Civetta" ran perfectly!
The issue of granting a patent was then just a formality.
Everything could have been fine if a badly soldered steam pipe hadn't burst during a later public test drive on the "Civetta"!
The ship had to be towed back into port in front of thousands of spectators and the press - and Ressel and Fontana became bitter enemies, who fought expensive lawsuits for years. Meanwhile, Ressel's patent was dormant.
His groundbreaking invention has since been stolen and exploited by others who have reaped fame, money and recognition for it!
The first screw steamer, which arrived in Trieste in 1840, came from England and was also built there - a deep humiliation for Ressel!
He died - almost forgotten - on October 10, 1857 in Laibach (today: Ljubljana), after having spent the rest of his life in the KuK forest service - he had been careful enough never to quit his job.
Later he was remembered in Austria:
There is a monument of him at the Vienna Karlsplatz...
...a commemorative plaque hangs on the scoolhouse, he visited, and which still exists today...
...and until the introduction of the "Euro" Ressel's portrait and a picture of his "Chivetta" adorned the front and back of the 500 Schilling banknote...:
I got to know the story in detail in the mid-90s, when Ressel's great-great-granddaughter Brigitte Ressel-Fast was a good colleague of mine at that time...
