Johannes "Hanns" Evangelist Hörbiger (29 November 1860, in

Atzgersdorf Atzgersdorf (; Central Bavarian: ''Atzgasduaf'') is a former municipality in Lower Austria that is now a part of the 23rd Viennese district Liesing. A small part of the former municipality today is part of the 12th Viennese district Meidling. Tod ...

– 11 October 1931, in Mauer) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

from

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

with roots in

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

. He took part in the construction of the

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

subway and in 1894 invented a new type of valve essential for compressors still in widespread use today. He is also remembered today for his

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

Welteislehre (WEL; "World Ice Theory" or "World Ice Doctrine"), also known as (''Glacial Cosmogony''), is a List of topics characterized as pseudoscience, discredited cosmological concept proposed by Hanns Hörbiger, an Austrian engineer and inventor. Accord ...

("World Ice doctrine").

Early life

Hanns Hörbiger was born in Atzgersdorf, a suburb of

Liesing Liesing () is the 23rd district of Vienna. It is on the southwest edge of Vienna, Austria. It was formed after Austria's ''Anschluss'' with Germany, when Vienna expanded from 21 districts to 26. Fifteen Lower Austrian districts, especially the o ...

, Vienna, and studied engineering at the local Technical College. In 1894 Hörbiger had an idea for a new design of blast furnace blowing engine: he replaced the old and easily damaged leather flap valves with a steel valve. Opening and closing automatically, and light and frictionless guided, the disk valve eliminated all the drawbacks of previous valve designs. Hörbiger registered a patent for his invention, which smoothed the way for efficient steel production and greater productivity in mining. High-pressure chemistry and the global network of gas exchange – none of these would be possible without the Hörbiger Valve. In 1900, Hanns Hörbiger and the engineer Friedrich Wilhelm Rogler founded an engineer’s office in

, which was moved to Vienna in 1903. By 1925 it had developed into the Hörbiger & Co. company. Alfred Hörbiger, one of Hörbiger’s sons, joined the company in 1925 and assumed the management, while Hanns Hörbiger devoted himself to scientific study until his death in 1931. Two other sons,

Attila Attila ( or ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in early 453. He was also the leader of an empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Gepids, among others, in Central Europe, C ...

and

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

became actors. The company developed rapidly under Alfred Hörbiger’s management: a production facility was taken into service in Vienna and an affiliated company was set up in Düsseldorf. Hörbiger expanded into England and concluded numerous licensing agreements with leading manufacturers of piston blowers, compressors and ships’ Diesel engines in Europe and North America. The success was driven by originality and inventive genius. The disk valve became more sophisticated: Hörbiger developed highlift or high-pressure valves, compressor control systems and damper plates. By 1937, 98% of production was destined for export. The name Hörbiger had become a dependable trademark in valve and control technology for compressors. As of 2017, the engineering company founded by Hanns Hörbiger still exists as HOERBIGER and is a major supplier of compression technology.

Welteislehre

Hörbiger is nowadays chiefly remembered for his ''

'' ("World Ice Doctrine"), which he first put forward in the 1913 book, ''Wirbelstürme, Wetterstürze, Hagelkatastrophen und Marskanal-Verdoppelungen'', written in collaboration with amateur astronomer Philipp Fauth. According to this theory, ice comprised most of the matter of the universe. Hörbiger's theories were later popularized by H.S. Bellamy, and influenced

Hans Robert Scultetus Hans Robert Scultetus (20 March 1904 in Halle (Saale) – 17 March 1976) was a German meteorologist, who headed the ''Pflegestätte für Wetterkunde'' (Meteorology Section) of the Nazi Ahnenerbe think tank. " Scultetus earned his PhD with the diss ...

, head of the ''Pflegestätte für Wetterkunde'' (Meteorology Section) of the SS-

Ahnenerbe The (, "Ancestral Heritage") was a pseudoscientific organization founded by the ''Schutzstaffel'' in Nazi Germany in 1935. Established by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler in July 1, 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to promoting racial the ...

, who believed that ''Welteislehre'' could be used to provide accurate long-range weather forecasts.

Occidental

Hörbiger was an early supporter and financial backer of the planned language Occidental, now officially known as Interlingue. His financial support was instrumental in allowing Occidental's main publication '' Cosmoglotta'' to "gain a circle of readers despite the economic crisis" during the period when its redactorial office was located in Vienna. His sons Hans Robert Hörbiger and Alfred also contributed to Cosmoglotta and were Occidentalists.

Family

Two of Hörbiger's sons,

and

, were matinée idols in the interwar years, and Paul Hörbiger's granddaughter Mavie Hörbiger also went on to become a celebrated actress. His two other sons devoted themselves to promoting their father's theory. Best known of the present Hörbiger generations is Attila's daughter

Christiane Christiane or Christianne is a given name, derived from the Latin ''Christiana'', the feminine form of ''Christianus'' (see Christian). It can also be a Latinized version of Middle English '' Christin'' 'Christian' (Old English ''christen'', from L ...

Honors

The Deslandres crater on

the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It orbits around Earth at an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth's diameter). The Moon rotates, with a rotation period ( lunar day) that is synchronized to its orbital period ( lunar ...

was designated ''Hörbiger'' by Philipp Fauth on his private lunar chart; it subsequently received the official name of Deslandres, following a 1942 suggestion by E. M. Antoniadi in 1942, which was approved at the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

's 1948 General Assembly. The name ''Hörbiger'' is still seen on the ''Hallwag'' moonmap made by Hans Schwarzenbach. There exists a stamp depicting him.

References