Kálmán Kandó
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Kálmán Kandó de Egerfarmos et Sztregova (''egerfarmosi és sztregovai Kandó Kálmán''; 10 July 1869 – 13 January 1931) was a Hungarian
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
, the inventor of phase converter and a pioneer in the development of AC electric railway traction.


Education and Family

Kálmán Kandó was born on July 8, 1869 in Pest into an ancient Hungarian noble family. His father was Géza Kandó (1840-1906) his mother was Irma Gulácsy (1845-1933). He began his grammar school studies at the Budapest Lutheran High School, at the Sütő street. His parents transferred him from a crowded school to a smaller school, a practice grammar school founded by Mór Kármán. He was enrolled in
Budapest Technical University The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( hu, Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is the most significant university of technology in Hungary and is considered the world's oldes ...
. In 1892 he received a degree in mechanical engineering. He completed his studies with excellent qualifications. He successfully used his knowledge of mechanics and electricity later in his career. Kandó served as a volunteer for the
Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (german: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', hu, Császári és Királyi Haditengerészet) was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the A ...
until 1893. Kálmán Kandó married Ilona Mária Petronella Posch (1880-1913) in
Terézváros Terézváros (English: Theresa Town, German: Theresienstadt) is the District VI of Budapest, and was named after Queen Maria Theresa in 1777, who visited the neighbourhood 26 years earlier in 1751. The territory was first inhabited in the early 1 ...
on February 2, 1899. Their first child - who was also named Kálmán - was born in the winter of 1899, and their daughter Ilona Sára was born in 1901. On July 9, 1913, his wife died of renal failure in Rožňava. His son Kálmán became a military officer. On October 18, 1922, his son Kálmán committed suicide with a service pistol in a military barrack. His daughter was married on July 7, 1923, and his grandson, George, was born on June 5, 1924.


Work on railway electrification


France

After his military service, he traveled to France in the autumn of 1893, and worked for the
Fives-Lille Fives-Lille was a French engineering company located at Fives, a suburb of Lille. It is now part of the Fives Group. History The company began as in 1861 and made a joint venture with the Société J. F. Cail & Cie. and were of Belgian orig ...
Company as a junior engineer, where he designed and developed early
induction motor An induction motor or asynchronous motor is an AC electric motor in which the electric current in the rotor needed to produce torque is obtained by electromagnetic induction from the magnetic field of the stator winding. An induction mot ...
s for locomotives. For the manufacture of induction motors, he developed a completely new design-calculation procedure, which made it possible to produce economical AC traction motors for the Fives Lille Company. Within a year, Kandó was appointed as the chief engineer of the electric motor development at the French firm.
András Mechwart András Mechwart de Belecska ( or András Mechwart, born as Andreas Mechwart, Schweinfurt, 6 September 1834 – Budapest, 14 June 1907) was a German-born Hungarian-German mechanical engineer, chief executive of the Ganz Works, and a pioneer in th ...
(the Ganz and Co.’s managing director at that time) asked him to return to Hungary in 1894 and invited him to work at the Electrical Engineering Department of the Ganz Works.


Ganz Company, Budapest

In 1894, Kálmán Kandó developed high-voltage
three phase Three-phase electric power (abbreviated 3φ) is a common type of alternating current used in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. It is a type of polyphase system employing three wires (or four including an optional neutral ...
alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...
motors and generators for
electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...
s; he is known as the ''father of the electric train''. His work on railway electrification was done at the
Ganz The Ganz Works or Ganz ( or , ''Ganz companies'', formerly ''Ganz and Partner Iron Mill and Machine Factory'') was a group of companies operating between 1845 and 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. It was named after Ábrahám Ganz, the founder and th ...
electric works in
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Evian-les-Bains (
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898. It was driven by 37 HP asynchronous traction system. In 1907 he moved with his family to
Vado Ligure Vado Ligure ( lij, Voæ), in antiquity Vada Sabatia, is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Savona, Liguria, in northern Italy. Economy Vado has a large industrial and commercial port. Vado Ligure is home to a railway construction plant, ...
in Italy and obtained employment with
Società Italiana Westinghouse The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
. He would later return to Budapest to work at the
Ganz The Ganz Works or Ganz ( or , ''Ganz companies'', formerly ''Ganz and Partner Iron Mill and Machine Factory'') was a group of companies operating between 1845 and 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. It was named after Ábrahám Ganz, the founder and th ...
factory where he became the managing director.


Italy, Designing the World's first electrified main railway line

In 1897, Kandó designed an electric system and engines for the Italian railways, the electric traction system had great advantages and importance on the very steep railway tracks in the mountainous regions of Italy. Under his leadership the Ganz factory began work on three-phase haulage for railways. Based on their design, the Italian
Ferrovia della Valtellina The Ferrovia della Valtellina (Valtellina railway) is a railway line in Italy that runs from Lecco to Valtellina and Valchiavenna. It was opened in 1894 and electrified on the three-phase system in 1902. It is now electrified at 3 kV direct cur ...
was electrified in 1902 and became Europe's first electrified main line railway. For the Valtellina line, three-phase power was supplied at 3,000 volts (later increased to 3,600 volts) through two overhead lines, while the running rails supplied the third phase. At junctions, the two overhead lines had to cross and this prevented the use of very high voltages. The three-phase, two wire, system was used on several railways in
Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
and became known as "the Italian system". There are now few railways which use this system. In 1907, the Italian government decided for the electrification of another 2000-km railway line with the restriction, that the electrical equipments and rolling stock could only be manufactured in Italy. The Westinghouse Company bought up Kandó's patents and paid licence-fee for the electric motors of the Ganz factory. The Westinghouse Company also built a locomotive factory in Vado Ligure, and appointed Kandó to head the new factory. Kandó accepted the invitation and moved to Vado in Italy with his several Hungarian colleagues. Two types of locomotives were developed with his leadership in Italy: a 1500 kw cinquanta and a 2100 kw trenta electric locomotives, from which altogether some 700 units were produced. 540 of these were still in service in 1945, the last three-phase line worked until 1976. In honour of Kandó’s work, he was awarded with Commendatore dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia (Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy), but in 1915 he had to flee through Switzerland, since Italy entered World War I on the Entente side and declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.


Electrification of the London underground lines, a moral victory

On the District and Metropolitan Railways, the use of steam locomotives led to smoke-filled stations and carriages that were unpopular with passengers and by the early Twentieth Century electrification was seen as the way forward. A tender was announced for an electric system, and the largest European and American companies applied to win the tender. However, when the experts of the railways compared the designs from the
Ganz Works The Ganz Works or Ganz ( or , ''Ganz companies'', formerly ''Ganz and Partner Iron Mill and Machine Factory'') was a group of companies operating between 1845 and 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. It was named after Ábrahám Ganz, the founder and the ...
to the offers of the other large European and American competitors they concluded that Ganz Works' technology was cheaper and more reliable and described its technology as a "revolution in electric railway traction". In 1901 a Metropolitan and District joint committee recommended the
Ganz The Ganz Works or Ganz ( or , ''Ganz companies'', formerly ''Ganz and Partner Iron Mill and Machine Factory'') was a group of companies operating between 1845 and 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. It was named after Ábrahám Ganz, the founder and th ...
three-phase AC system with overhead wires. Initially this was unanimously accepted by both parties, until the District found an investor, the
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
Charles Yerkes Charles Tyson Yerkes Jr. ( ; June 25, 1837 – December 29, 1905) was an American financier. He played a part in developing mass-transit systems in Chicago and London. Philadelphia Yerkes was born into a Quaker family in the Northern Liberties ...
, to finance the upgrade. Yerkes raised £1 million (1901 pounds adjusted by inflation are £) and soon had control of the District Railway. His experiences in the United States led him to favour of the classic DC system, similar to that in use on the City & South London Railway and Central London Railway. The Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the
Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
the DC system was adopted.


Vienna, invention of the phase converter

During World War I between 1916 and 1917, Kandó was a lieutenant completing military service for the Ministry of Defence in Vienna. He worked out a revolutionary system of phase-changing electrical hauling, whereby locomotives were powered by the standard, 50-period, single-phase alternating current used in the national energy supply system. He was the first who recognised that an electric train system can only be successful if it can use the electricity from public networks. In 1918, Kandó invented and developed the
rotary phase converter A rotary phase converter, abbreviated RPC, is an electrical machine that converts power from one polyphase system to another, converting through rotary motion. Typically, single-phase electric power is used to produce three-phase electric power ...
, enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high voltage national networks.


Hungary

To avoid the problems associated with the use of two overhead wires, Kandó developed a modified system for use in Hungary. Power semiconductors not having been invented yet in the 1930s, the Kandó V40 locomotives' systems relied on electromechanics and electrochemistry.


Kandó synchronous phase converter

Single-phase power was supplied at 16,000 volts and 50 Hz through a single overhead line and converted to three-phase on the locomotive by a
rotary phase converter A rotary phase converter, abbreviated RPC, is an electrical machine that converts power from one polyphase system to another, converting through rotary motion. Typically, single-phase electric power is used to produce three-phase electric power ...
. The drive motors, made by
Metropolitan-Vickers Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, it was particularly well known for its industrial el ...
, had a very large diameter of 3 meters and incorporated four sets of 24 magnetic poles each, which could be added to the traction effort at will, producing highly efficient constant speeds of 25, 50, 75 and 100 km/h over rail (or 17/34/51/68 km/h for the V60 heavy freight train engine variant, which had six pairs of smaller driving wheels). He created an electric machine called a synchronous phase converter, which was a single-phase
synchronous motor A synchronous electric motor is an AC electric motor in which, at steady state, the rotation of the shaft is synchronized with the frequency of the supply current; the rotation period is exactly equal to an integral number of AC cycles. Sync ...
and a three-phase
synchronous generator In an alternating current electric power system, synchronization is the process of matching the frequency of a generator or other source to a running network. An AC generator cannot deliver power to an electrical grid unless it is running at the sam ...
with common stator and rotor. It had two independent windings: * The outer winding is a single-phase synchronous motor. The motor takes the power from the
overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...
. * The inner winding is a three-phase (or variable-phase) synchronous generator, which provides the power for the three- (or more) phase traction motors. ;Power factor A major benefit of this arrangement was a
power factor In electrical engineering, the power factor of an AC power system is defined as the ratio of the '' real power'' absorbed by the load to the ''apparent power'' flowing in the circuit. Real power is the average of the instantaneous product of v ...
of nearly 1.00 in the
catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superficia ...
-attached equipment, which fulfilled the electric powerplants' strict load-distributing regulations. The unacceptably poor power factor of pre-
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
design electric motors (occasionally as low as 0.65) was not felt outside the Kando locomotives, as the phase changer machinery provided isolation. ;Speed control Intermediate speeds were maintained by connecting a water and saltpeter based adjustable resistor to the line, which reduced the efficiency of the locomotive. Timetables for electrified lines were supposed to allow use of full efficiency constant speeds most of the time but, in practice, the need to share the track with trains hauled by MÁV Class 424
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s meant the water-hungry and wasteful "gearbox resistor" had to be used often. ;Kandó triangle drive The propulsive force was transferred to the locomotive's wheels using a traditional pushrod system, designed to provide manufacturing and maintenance commodity to the predominantly steam-based Hungarian Railways (MÁV) of the time. The so-called Kandó triangle arrangement transferred power from the electric motor to the pushrods in such a way that no oblique forces were exerted on the chassis, making the V40 less hurtful to the rail track compared to steam engines. In practice the V40 pushrod system was too precise for steam-era habits based maintenance and required more frequent care. ;Shaft drive More than a decade after Kandó's death two new, shaft-driven prototypes of his design were built by the Ganz company, to allow for 125 km/h traction speeds. The V44 electric locomotives proved too heavy for general use, owing to their 22 metric ton per axle rail load. Both vehicles were eventually destroyed in
USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
bombing raids in 1944, running only 16,000 kilometers overall. ;Bogie-mounted motors After the second World War, a last series of electric phase-changer locomotives were built by the new
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
government in Hungary. Owing to
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
restrictions, the innovative V55 type, which used bogie-mounted motors, had to be constructed of domestic components entirely and suffered from reliability problems in their double-conversion phase-changer / frequency-changer propulsion system. (The traction motors of pre-WWII V40 and V60 locomotives were made in Britain by the Metropolitan-Vickers company, as part of an economic aid programme organized by
Lord Rothermere Viscount Rothermere, of Hemsted in the county of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for the press lord Harold Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth. He had already been created a baronet, of Horsey in th ...
.) ;Preservation Currently one example of the V40, the V55 and the V60 locomotive each survives. They are preserved at the Budapest Railway History Park, but require restoration after decades of open air static display. If funding permits, the repaired V40 may return to the open track for "nostalgic service", with a semiconductor front-end added to its system for 25 to 16 kV AC down-step conversion.


France

Kandó designed in 1926 the 1.5 kV DC 2BB2 400 ( :fr:2BB2 400) for the Paris-Orleans line which were the strongest DC locomotives in Europe at that time.


United Kingdom

8 years after the death of Kandó, the engineering office of the Ganz Works won several British tenders, which were mostly based on Kandó's latest technology. British firms were entrusted with the implementation of these plans. There were plans to use the two-wire, three-phase, system on the
Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway The Porthmadog, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway (PB&SSR) was a narrow gauge railway intended to connect Porthmadog with the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways link terminus at Rhyd Ddu. Although some of the line was constructed between 1 ...
in
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
and the
Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...
in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
but neither of these plans came to fruition due to the outbreak of WW II.


Kandó's legacy

Kálmán Kandó died at Budapest in 1931 but his work lives on. Many modern electric trains work on the same three-phase high tension AC principle introduced by the Kandó V40 locomotives, but the rotary converter is replaced by
semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
devices. Three-phase powered electric motors allow for high traction effort even at great speeds and the difficulty of maintaining arbitrary speeds at full efficiency is eliminated by using
IGBT An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a three-terminal power semiconductor device primarily used as an electronic switch, which, as it was developed, came to combine high efficiency and fast switching. It consists of four alternating lay ...
semiconductors and the use of digital controls. In
Miskolc Miskolc ( , , ; Czech language, Czech and sk, Miškovec; german: Mischkolz; yi, script=Latn, Mishkoltz; ro, Mișcolț) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 (1 Jan 2014) Miskolc is the ...
, the square in front of the
Tiszai railway station The Tiszai Railway Station, operated by Hungarian State Railways, is the larger of two railway stations of the city of Miskolc, Hungary. Despite its name, the station is not close to the river Tisza; it was named after the company that built it. ...
, where his statue is also standing, bears his name, as well as a vocational secondary school. In Budapest, the Kandó Kálmán Faculty of Electrical Engineering (formerly an independent technical college, now part of
Óbuda University The Óbuda University ( hu, Óbudai Egyetem, la, Universitas Budensis), named after Óbuda, a part of Budapest, is a technical university in Budapest, Hungary. It was founded in 2000 as ''Budapest Tech'' () with the merging of three polytechn ...
), also bears his name. The minor planet 126245 Kandókálmán was named after him.


See also

*
Three-phase AC railway electrification Three-phase AC railway electrification was used in Italy, Switzerland and the United States in the early twentieth century. Italy was the major user, from 1901 until 1976, although lines through two tunnels also used the system; the Simplon Tunnel ...
*
Railway electrification system A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), ele ...
*
List of railway electrification systems This is a list of the power supply systems that are, or have been, used for tramway and railway electrification systems. Note that the voltages are nominal and vary depending on load and distance from the substation. Many modern trams and trains ...


References


External links


Kálmán Kandó biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kando, Kalman 1869 births 1931 deaths Hungarian electrical engineers Hungarian people in rail transport Italian people in rail transport Locomotive builders and designers Burials at Kerepesi Cemetery Hungarian inventors