Robert Huber (7 July 1901 - 7 April 1995) was born in

Freienstein Freienstein-Teufen is a municipality in the district of Bülach in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. History Freienstein-Teufen is first mentioned in 890 as ''Tiuffen''. In 1254 it was mentioned as ''Frigenstein''. Geography Freienstein-T ...

, Switzerland. He attended a primary school in Freienstein from 1908 to 1914 and a secondary school in Freienstein from 1914 to 1916. From 1916 to 1920 he attended a high school in Zurich. From 1920 to 1924 he studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (now

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

) under Professor

Aurel Stodola Aurel Boleslav Stodola (11 May 1859 – 25 December 1942) was a Slovak engineer, physicist, and inventor. He was a pioneer in the area of technical thermodynamics and its applications and published his book ''Die Dampfturbine'' (the steam turbine ...

Career

In 1924, Huber became Technical Director of the Bureau Technique Pescara where he supervised the design of nearly 30 different sizes and types of

free-piston engine A free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless' internal combustion engine, in which the piston motion is not controlled by a crankshaft but determined by the interaction of forces from the combustion chamber gases, a rebound device (e.g., a piston i ...

and acquired the nickname "Mr Free Piston". The first was the AC-2, running on petrol (

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

). The second was the AC-3, which was similar but ran on

diesel fuel Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...

. Eighteen types of free-piston engine were built and tested. In 1932, Huber read a book by Professor Lomonosov about

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

s. He also heard of a proposal by

Petro Shelest Petro Yukhymovych Shelestrussian: Пётр Ефи́мович Ше́лест, translit=Pyotr Yefimovich Shelest (14 February 190822 January 1996) was a Ukrainian Soviet politician. First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian Sovie ...

for

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...

s driven by compressed air. This information gave him the idea of developing the

free-piston gas turbine A free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless' internal combustion engine, in which the piston motion is not controlled by a crankshaft but determined by the interaction of forces from the combustion chamber gases, a rebound device (e.g., a piston i ...

. Several of these were designed but not built. Finally, in 1938–39, the world's first free-piston generator was built. It used two G-30 machines and drove an 800 kW

alternator An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.Go ...

. Huber stayed at ''Bureau Technique Pescara'' (which became ''Société d'études mécaniques et énergétiques''Les groupes électrogènes à turbines à gaz alimentées par générateurs à pistons libres
- R. Huber, October 1954 (SEME) in 1939) until 1962. During his time there, thousands of free-piston engines had been sold. Huber continued to work on free-piston engines until at least 1967. Huber was a pioneer in the development of

common rail Common rail direct fuel injection is a direct fuel injection system built around a high-pressure (over ) fuel rail feeding solenoid valves, as opposed to a low-pressure fuel pump feeding unit injectors (or pump nozzles). High-pressure injection ...

fuel injection in the 1960s.

Patents

Robert Huber has about 40 patents related to free-piston engines. A few examples are listed below: * US2452194 (A), published 1948-10-26, Free piston machine * US2645213 (A), published 1953-07-14, Free piston engine having hollow pistons * US2943438 (A), published 1960-07-05, Improvements in free piston engine and gas turbine power plant * US2990680 (A), published 1961-07-04, Devices for starting and stopping free piston machines and in particular free piston auto-generators

Family life

On 12 August 1942, Huber married Ursula Meyer.

Final years

Huber wrote a biography in the 1980s. He died on 7 April 1995.

References

1901 births 1995 deaths Swiss mechanical engineers {{Switzerland-bio-stub