Hugo Lentz (1859–1944) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

, born in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. He was the inventor of many award-winning improvements to the steam engine. The correct spelling of his name is Lenz but it has been Anglicised to Lentz in English-speaking countries.

Life and career

Lentz was born on 21 July 1859 in

. When he was six years old, his father died and the family returned to relatives in Germany. He became an engineer in the

Prussian Navy The Prussian Navy ( German: ''Preußische Marine''), officially the Royal Prussian Navy ( German: ''Königlich Preußische Marine''), was the naval force of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1701 to 1867. The Prussian Navy was created in 1701 from the ...

. In 1888, Lentz founded his own machine factory in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. At an exposition in honour of Alessandro Volta in

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps h ...

in 1899, his first steam engine won the first prize. At the Exposition Universelle (1900) in Paris, it won the ''Grand Prix'' while Lentz himself was awarded the gold medal. From 1907, ''Davey, Paxman & Co'',''History of Paxman's Ownership and Corporate Identity''
at www.paxmanhistory.org.uk. Accessed on 21 Feb 2013. and later the ''Erie City Iron Works'' in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

built Lentz's steam engines. In total, Lentz acquired some 2000 patents. He is best known for his steam

valve gear The valve gear of a steam engine is the mechanism that operates the inlet and exhaust valves to admit steam into the cylinder and allow exhaust steam to escape, respectively, at the correct points in the cycle. It can also serve as a reversing ...

with oscillating and rotating cams to actuate

poppet valve A poppet valve (also called mushroom valve) is a valve typically used to control the timing and quantity of gas or vapor flow into an engine. It consists of a hole or open-ended chamber, usually round or oval in cross-section, and a plug, usua ...

s. He also developed an eponymous form of locomotive boiler, the

Lentz boiler A launch-type, gunboat or horizontal multitubular boiler is a form of small steam boiler. It consists of a cylindrical horizontal shell with a cylindrical furnace and fire-tubes within this. Their name derives from the boiler's popular use at o ...

, with a corrugated tubular furnace. Paxman-Lentz single-cylinder engine (Rankin Kennedy, Modern Engines, Vol IV)

Lentz died on 21 March 1944.

References

External links

A History of Lentz Valve Gear on British Steam Locomotives
Locomotive valve gear 1859 births 1944 deaths Austrian railway mechanical engineers Austrian inventors {{Austria-engineer-stub