Alexander Bernhard Dräger (14 June 1870, Howe - 12 January 1928,

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

), was a German engineer,

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

and inventor. Dräger was born in the village of Howe (now part of

Kirchwerder Kirchwerder () is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. It is located on the southeast border of Hamburg at the Elbe river. Geography Kirchwerder is a part of the Vierlande and is located at the Elbe river. Therefore it is ...

Bergedorf Bergedorf () is the largest of the seven boroughs of Hamburg, Germany, named after Bergedorf quarter within this borough. In 2020 the population of the borough was 130,994. History The city of Bergedorf received town privileges in 1275, then ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. In 1889, Bernhard's father and Carl Adolf Gerling founded ''Firma Dräger und Gerling'' in Lübeck to exploit

industrial gas Industrial gases are the gaseous materials that are manufactured for use in industry. The principal gases provided are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, hydrogen, helium and acetylene, although many other gases and mixtures are also avail ...

technology. In 1902, Heinrich took Bernhard into partnership, and the firm's name was changed to ''Drägerwerk Heinr. und Bernh. Dräger''. The firm specialised in self-contained breathing sets for industrial and rescue workers and for divers, and welding and cutting torches. The company still exists today, as Drägerwerk AG. Bernhard filed at least one

patent application A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for an invention described in the patent specification and a set of one or more claims stated in a formal document, including necessary official forms and re ...

for his developments.

References

1870 births People from Bergedorf 1928 deaths Engineers from Hamburg 20th-century German inventors Patent holders {{Germany-engineer-stub