- Viktor Kaplan
Viktor Kaplan (
November 27 1876 –August 23 1934 ) was an Austrian engineer and the inventor of theKaplan turbine .Life
Kaplan was born in
Mürzzuschlag ,Austria into a railroad worker's family. He graduated from high school inVienna in 1895, after which he attended theTechnical University of Vienna , where he studiedcivil engineering and specialised indiesel engines. From 1900 to 1901 he was drafted into military service inPula .After working in
Vienna with a specialisation in motors, he moved to the German Technical University in Brno to conduct research at the institute of civil engineering. He spent the next three decades of his life inBrno , and nearly all his inventions and research are connected with his professorship there (he became a fullprofessor in 1909).In 1912 he published his most notable work: the
Kaplan turbine , a revolutionarywater turbine that was especially fitted to produce electricity from large streams with only a moderate incline. From 1912 to 1913 he received four patents on these kinds ofturbines .In 1913 he was appointed head of the institute for
water turbine s. In 1918 Kaplan turbines were first built by the Storek construction company for a textile manufacturer in Lower Austria. After the success of the first Kaplan turbines, they started being used worldwide and today remain one of the most widely used kinds ofwater turbine s.In 1926 and 1934 Kaplan received
honorary doctorate s. He died of astroke in 1934 atUnterach am Attersee ,Austria .
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