Wilhelm Schmidt, known as Hot Steam Schmidt (German: ''Heißdampf-Schmidt'') (1858–1924) was a German engineer and inventor who achieved the breakthrough in the development of

superheated steam Superheated steam is steam at a temperature higher than its vaporization point at the absolute pressure where the temperature is measured. Superheated steam can therefore cool (lose internal energy) by some amount, resulting in a lowering of its ...

technology for steam engines. Wilhelm Schmidt was born in

Wegeleben Wegeleben () is a town in the Harz district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Vorharz. Geography It is situated at the confluence of the Goldbach and Bode rivers, e ...

in the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

Province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (german: link=no, Provinz Sachsen), also known as Prussian Saxony () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merge ...

on 18 February 1858.

Education

At school Wilhelm Schmidt had difficulties with reading, writing and arithmetic, a case of

dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

. For example, he was unable to recite the alphabet without hesitation all his life. Nor could he memorise poetry or prose. He developed a passion for drawing, however, and for machines.

Career

Schmidt superheater (Heat Engines, 1913)

Schmidt began his professional career as a machine fitter. He studied at the technical high school in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

under

Gustav Zeuner Gustav Anton Zeuner (30 November 1828 – 17 October 1907) was a German physicist, engineer and epistemologist, considered the founder of technical thermodynamics and of the Dresden School of Thermodynamics. Life University and Revolutio ...

Superheated steam

In 1883 he took a post as a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

, where he developed superheated steam technology to the point where it could be practically used. In 1908 he transferred his home and the base of his firm to

Benneckenstein Benneckenstein () is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it has been part of the town of Oberharz am Brocken. Benneckenstein is in the eastern Harz, 14 km southeast of Braunlage, and 24 km so ...

in the

Harz The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

. He was not the first person to work with superheated steam, but his predecessors had only used steam temperatures up to 250 °C; Schmidt was the first to risk increasing this to 350 °C.

Schmidt Superheated Steam Company

For further trials with superheated steam on the

Ilsenburg Ilsenburg () is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It is situated under the north foot of the Harz Mountains, at the entrance to the Ilse valley with its little river, the Ilse, a tributary of the Oker, about six north ...

–

Wernigerode Wernigerode () is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,041 in 2012. Wernigerode is located southwest of Halberstadt, and is picturesquely s ...

railway, there was a trials organisation near Wernigerode station. It was here that Schmidt founded the Schmidt Superheated Steam Company (''Schmidtsche Heissdampfgesellschaft''). By using superheated

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

the

thermal efficiency In thermodynamics, the thermal efficiency (\eta_) is a dimensionless performance measure of a device that uses thermal energy, such as an internal combustion engine, steam turbine, steam engine, boiler, furnace, refrigerator, ACs etc. For a he ...

of a steam engine could be raised by as much as 50%. This technology had a substantial influence on the development of the

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 ...

and

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

, as well as all other applications where steam engines were used. Schmidt also invented other items, such as the

superheater A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There ar ...

(around 1890) and the

piston valve A "piston valve" is a device used to control the motion of a fluid along a tube or pipe by means of the linear motion of a piston within a chamber or cylinder. Examples of piston valves are: * The valves used in many brass instruments * The va ...

, which he developed together with Robert Garbe of the

Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...

ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery

Even today, his successor company - ''Schmidt'schen Heissdampf GmbH'', survives under the name of ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery GmbH, in Kassel-Bettenhausen. It develops and builds apparatus for the processes involving the transfer of heat in the

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

and

metallurgical Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

industries, e.g.

cracked Cracked may refer to: Television * ''Cracked'' (British TV series), a 2008 British comedy-drama television series that aired on STV * ''Cracked'' (Canadian TV series), a 2013 Canadian crime drama series that aired on CBC * "Cracked", a Season 8 ( ...

gas coolers for the manufacture of

ethylene Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula or . It is a colourless, flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon-carbon double bonds). Ethylene i ...

, gas coolers for the manufacture of

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is a ...

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...

and

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

and a multitude of equipment for special purposes. The company continues to be highly innovative and a market leader in its field.

Religious views

Schmidt viewed his inventions however as rather unimportant in view of "a world which is badly lost". He held a strong faith and distributed ''Warning Cry to the People'' (''Mahnrufe an das Volk'') from Bethel, near

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

. He was friends with Friedrich von Bodelschwingh. He held the view that Anglo-Saxon Christianity had weakened German Christianity.Entry in Ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon
/ref> He died on 16 February 1924 in Bethel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Wilhelm 1858 births 1924 deaths People from Harz (district) People from the Province of Saxony German Protestants Businesspeople from Saxony-Anhalt German railway mechanical engineers Locomotive builders and designers Engineers from Saxony-Anhalt