Adolf Slaby
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
pioneer and the first Professor of electro-technology at the Technical University of Berlin
Technical University of Berlin
The Technische Universität Berlin is a research university located in Berlin, Germany. Translating the name into English is discouraged by the university, however paraphrasing as Berlin Institute of Technology is recommended by the university if necessary .The TU Berlin was founded...
(1886).
Education
Slaby was born in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, the son of a bookbinder. He enrolled at the Berlin Trade Academy, the forerunner of Berlin-Charlottenburg Technical Academy to study mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
under Franz Reuleaux
Franz Reuleaux
Franz Reuleaux , was a mechanical engineer and a lecturer of the Berlin Royal Technical Academy, later appointed as the President of the Academy. He was often called the father of kinematics...
. He was employed as an in-house instructor with the machine manufacturer Louis Schwartzkopff, leading to an interest in mechanical engineering. Slaby continued his studies at the University of Jena, and received his doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in mathematics.
Early research
Slaby taught mathematics and mechanics at the vocational schoolVocational school
A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job...
at Potsdam, where he conducted experiments on steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s and petrol engine
Petrol engine
A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels....
s. He wrote his book Theorie der Gasmaschinen, which took an important place in the development of Internal combustion engine
Internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
s. Slaby also studied with Heinrich Hertz.
Electro-technology
Berlin was at that time the center of electro-technology, with Werner von Siemens in a leading position. Siemens supported Slaby personally in his private studies. Slaby performed his HabilitationHabilitation
Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...
at the Berlin Trade Academy in 1876, and lectured on electrical motors, electrical telegraphy
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
, and Electromechanics
Electromechanics
In engineering, electromechanics combines the sciences of electromagnetism, of electrical engineering and mechanics. Mechanical engineering in this context refers to the larger discipline which includes chemical engineering, and other related disciplines. Electrical engineering in this context...
. In 1883, he became a tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
d professor of electro-technology.
In the meantime, the Charlottenburg Technical Academy had been renamed a university. There, Slaby developed a program of theoretical lectures connected with practical work. With the generous support of industry he established in 1844 an electro-technical laboratory, making Berlin the most important training center for the recently-developed field of electro-technology.
Radio
As a result of his personal acquaintance with the head of the English telegraph administration, Sir William Henry PreeceWilliam Henry Preece
Sir William Henry Preece was a Welsh electrical engineer and inventor. Preece relied on experiments and physical reasoning in his life's work. Upon his retirement from the Post Office in 1899, Preece was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath .-Biography:Preece was born in Caernarfon ,...
(1834–1917), from 1897 Slaby participated with the help of his assistant Georg von Arco
Georg von Arco
Georg Wilhelm Alexander Hans Graf von Arco was a German physicist, radio pioneer, and one of the joint founders of the "Society for Wireless Telegraphy" which became the Telefunken company. He was an engineer and the technical director of Telefunken...
from 1897 in Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
's experiments with wireless telegraphy
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
across the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
. He recognized immediately the meaning of this invention, and repeated the experiments in Berlin, leading to development of essential physical and technical concepts. The Emperor and the military authorities appeared very interested.
The wireless telegraphy
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
- trials took place first at the Technical University of Berlin
Technical University of Berlin
The Technische Universität Berlin is a research university located in Berlin, Germany. Translating the name into English is discouraged by the university, however paraphrasing as Berlin Institute of Technology is recommended by the university if necessary .The TU Berlin was founded...
, and then between Church of the Redeemer, Sacrow
Church of the Redeemer, Sacrow
The Protestant Church of the Redeemer is located in the south of the village of Sacrow, which since 1939 is incorporated to Potsdam, the capital of the German Bundesland of Brandenburg. It is famous for its Italian Romanesque Revival architecture with a separate campanile and for its...
and the 1.6 kilometers distant Marine station Kongsnaes at the Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz is an important public square and traffic intersection in the centre of Berlin, Germany, lying about one kilometre south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag , and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park...
. On 7 October 1897, he established a 21-kilometer radio link between Schöneberg and Rangsdorf
Rangsdorf
Rangsdorf is a municipality in the district of Teltow-Fläming in Brandenburg in Germany. It has an airfield, from where on 20 July 1944 Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg flew in his unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler at Wolfsschanze....
, a world record. The following summer, he established a link between Berlin to Jüterbog
Jüterbog
Jüterbog is a historic town in north-eastern Germany, located in the Teltow-Fläming district of Brandenburg. It is located on the Nuthe river at the northern slope of the Fläming hill range, about southwest of Berlin.-History:...
with the end-points being over 60 km apart. Crucial improvements led to the success, not of spark gap
Spark gap
A spark gap consists of an arrangement of two conducting electrodes separated by a gap usually filled with a gas such as air, designed to allow an electric spark to pass between the conductors. When the voltage difference between the conductors exceeds the gap's breakdown voltage, a spark forms,...
transmission antennas as used by Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
, but in inductive antennas.
Slaby and the German navy attempted to invade the Marconi station at Glace Bay, Newfoundland:
“The first day, it was the commander and thirty of his officers, demanding a look round.
Vyvyan, the station manager, met them at the gate and told he'd be glad to show them over
the place, as long as they could produce a letter of authority from Marconi or the company.
Of course they didn't have one. The commander huffed and puffed and said that His Imperial
Majesty would be much annoyed ... and they went off. The next day, however, they sent a
mob of 150 sailors. They would have overrun the place if Vyvyan hadn't kept his head.
He organized a defensive force of laborers to keep them out."
Telefunken
Radio communications were also transmitted at several places, by Slaby at the AEG, by Marconi Wireless telegraph Co. and by Ferdinand Braun at Siemens & Halske. However Slaby's radiograms were rejected by a Marconi station, because the licensing forbade it. This untenable condition led to consolidation: in 1903 AEGAEG
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in 1883 by Emil Rathenau....
and Siemens & Halske
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
formed the "Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegrafen m. b. H. System Telefunken, known as Telefunken
Telefunken
Telefunken is a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft...
.
Engagement for the Hochschule
Slaby became both chairman of Verein Deutscher IngenieureVerein Deutscher Ingenieure
Verein Deutscher Ingenieure is an organization of 139,000 engineers and natural scientists.Established in 1856, the VDI is today the largest engineering association in Western Europe....
and in 1893 the first chairmen of VDE, and had a personal audience with William II, German Emperor
William II, German Emperor
Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was a grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe...
. Slaby gave lectures about technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
in the Berlin Palace,and organized experimental lectures for the emperor at the TH Berlin
Technical University of Berlin
The Technische Universität Berlin is a research university located in Berlin, Germany. Translating the name into English is discouraged by the university, however paraphrasing as Berlin Institute of Technology is recommended by the university if necessary .The TU Berlin was founded...
. This accomplished the social recognition of engineers and the complete equal rights of the technical universities with the universities. Adolf Slaby became 1898 the first representative of a TH to be a lifetime member in Prussian Herrenhaus. In 1906, Slaby retired to emeritus status. His successor was Ernst Orlich, a representative of the classical mathematical treatment of the problems of the theoretical electro-technology. Slaby was then named chairman of the board for the Akademischer Verein Hütte (Association of Students) a position he held until January 18, 1912.
Memorials
- There is a City of Berlin Plaque to him at the technical University of Berlin, with the following inscription in blue writing on white KPM - porcelainPorcelainPorcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
reading "BERLINER GEDENKTAFEL In dem hier vormals stehenden Hause - Sophienstraße 4 - lebte von 1885 bis 1913 der Pionier der Funktechnik ADOLF SLABY18.4.1849 - 6.4.1913 Erster Professor der Elektrotechnik an der Technischen Hochschule Charlottenburg Mitbegründer der Telefunken AG" (Here lived from 1885 to 1913 Adolf Slaby (18.4.1849 - 6.4.1913), the pioneer of radio engineering, first professor of electro-technology at the Technical University Charlottenburg, joint founder of Telefunken AG) - to the memory of Slaby was published A stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
was published in his memory, at the Federal Post Office Berlin (first day of issue his 125th Birthday on 14 April 1974). - In two districts of BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
(Treptow Köpenick and Marzahn Hellersdorf) there are roads named after Adolf Slaby.