Heißdampf-Schmidt on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
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
Schmidt began his professional career as a machine fitter. He studied at the technical high school in Dresden under Gustav Zeuner.
Entry in Ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon
/ref> He died on 16 February 1924 in Bethel.
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
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
. Wilhelm Schmidt was born in Wegeleben in the Prussian 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 ofdyslexia
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 began his professional career as a machine fitter. He studied at the technical high school in Dresden under Gustav Zeuner.
Superheated steam
In 1883 he took a post as acivil 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 ...
in 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. 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 – Wernigerode railway, there was a trials organisation near Wernigerode station. It was here that Schmidt founded the Schmidt Superheated Steam Company (''Schmidtsche Heissdampfgesellschaft''). By using superheatedsteam
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 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, which he developed together with Robert Garbe Robert Hermann Garbe (pronounced 'Garber') (9 January 1847 – 23 May 1932) was a German railway engineer and chief engineer of the Berlin division in the Prussian state railways from 1895 to 1917. He was especially known for his steam locomotive ...
of the Prussian state railways.
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, chemical and metallurgical industries, e.g. cracked gas coolers for the manufacture ofethylene
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 and hydrogen 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. He was friends withFriedrich von Bodelschwingh Friedrich "Fritz" von Bodelschwingh (; 14 August 1877, Bethel – 4 January 1946), also known as Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Younger, was a German pastor, theologian and public health advocate. His father was Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Elde ...
. He held the view that Anglo-Saxon Christianity had weakened German Christianity./ref> He died on 16 February 1924 in Bethel.
References