Carl Eugen Langen (9 October 1833 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

– 2 October 1895 in Elsdorf) was a German entrepreneur, engineer and inventor, involved in the development of the

petrol engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends (such as ''E ...

and the

Wuppertal Suspension Railway The Wuppertaler Schwebebahn ("Wuppertal Suspension Railway") is a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany. Its original name was ("Eugen Langen Monorail Overhead Conveyor System"). It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars ...

. In 1857 he worked in his father's sugar factory, JJ Langen & Söhne, and after extensive technical training at the Polytechnic institute in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, patented a method for producing sugar cubes. He sold this method in 1872 to Sir

Henry Tate Sir Henry Tate, 1st Baronet (11 March 18195 December 1899) was an English sugar merchant and philanthropist, noted for establishing the Tate Gallery in London. Life and career Born in White Coppice, a hamlet near Chorley, Lancashire, Tate wa ...

of England, founder of the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London.

Otto and Langen

In 1864, Langen met

Nicolaus August Otto Nicolaus August Otto (10 June 1832, Holzhausen an der Haide, Nassau – 26 January 1891, Cologne) was a German engineer who successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas and led to the mode ...

who was working to improve to the

gas engine A gas engine is an internal combustion engine that runs on a gaseous fuel, such as coal gas, producer gas, biogas, landfill gas or natural gas. In the United Kingdom, the term is unambiguous. In the United States, due to the widespread use of ...

invented by Belgian Etienne Lenoir. The technically–trained Langen recognized the potential of Otto's development, and one month after the meeting, founded the first engine factory in the world, NA Otto & Cie. At the 1867 Paris World Exhibition, their improved engine received the Grand Prize.

Deutz

After this first factory went bankrupt, Langen founded a new company for the construction of gas engines, ''Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz'', which later became the group Kloeckner-Humboldt-Deutz (KHD).Wise, David Burgess. "Daimler: Founder of the Four-Wheeler", in Northey, Tom, ed.
World of Automobiles
' (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 5, p.483, subscription required. This became the current

Deutz AG Deutz AG is a German internal combustion engine manufacturer, based in Porz, Cologne, Germany. History The company was founded by Nicolaus Otto, the inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, and his partner Eugen Langen on 31 ...

. Langen invented and applied new methods of production in the KHD factory.

Railway equipment

In the field of rail transport equipment, Langen was co-owner and engineer of the Cologne Waggonfabrik van der Zypen & Charlier. He started the

suspension railway A suspension railway is a form of elevated monorail in which the vehicle is suspended from a fixed track (as opposed to a cable used in aerial tramways), which is built above streets, waterways, or existing railway track. History Experimental d ...

system in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

in 1894.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Langen, Eugen 1833 births 1895 deaths 19th-century German inventors German industrialists 19th-century German businesspeople People associated with the internal combustion engine Wuppertal Schwebebahn Businesspeople from Cologne

Otto and Langen

Deutz

Railway equipment

See also

References