Josef Ressel

Josef Ressel was a world-famous Czech inventor and engineer, author of the propeller design and other technical inventions, a mathematician, a forestry engineer and a man of many talents who, based on the study of Archimedes' law, designed a more efficient way of moving ships and thus transformed shipping worldwide.

The future inventor and designer was born into the family of toll collector Anton Hermann Ressel in Chrudim. After elementary school, he went to the high school in Linz and then started to study at the artillery school in České Budějovice. Here he was more interested in a quality education in algebra, geometry and technical drawing than in an army career. Due to physical weakness, he did not join the army and went to study medicine in Vienna. However, his family could not afford to support him at his studies any further, and Ressel, who was blessed with many talents, had to leave school. He succeeded in obtaining a scholarship directly from Emperor Francis I to study forestry engineering in Mariabrunn near Vienna. After graduating from forestry school, he worked as a forester in what is now Slovenia, surveying forests and draining swamps. Here already, the talented engineer had explored the idea of more efficient ship propulsion, and on the Krka River near the town of Kostanjevica he tested for the first time an experimental example of a new ship propulsion based on the study of Archimedes' law. The helix-shaped propulsion proved successful, and when Ressel was transferred to the Italian port of Trieste on the Adriatic Sea, he tried his propeller on larger ships. Gradually he arrived at the most efficient shape and position of the propeller and in 1827 he obtained a patent for his invention. Other attempts, however, were unlucky. The steamer with Ressel's propeller broke down and the patent was cancelled. So he began to devote himself to the invention of other technical aids and scientific work in forestry. He also invented, for example, a ball bearing without lubrication, a device for determining the quality of wood or a steam road locomotive. Without fame or fortune, he continued to lead the life of a forest engineer and died of malaria in 1857 on one of his inspection trips. Josef Ressel is buried in the cemetery in Navje near Ljubljana, Slovenia.

VITOUCHOVÁ, V.: Josef Ressel. Osobnosti z dějin vědy a techniky. Zpravodaj knihovny AV ČR, 1/2013

 

KRAUS I.: Dějiny technických věd a vynálezů v českých zemích. Praha 2004

(Author: Public domain)