Wilhelm Lenk von Wolfsberg
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Nikolaus Wilhelm Freiherr Lenk von Wolfsberg (born March 17, 1809, Budweis,
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 ...
; died October 18, 1894,
Troppau Opava (; german: Troppau, pl, Opawa) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Opava. Opava is one of the historical centres of Silesia. It was a historical capital o ...
,
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 ...
) was an Austrian officer (
Feldzeugmeister ''Feldzeugmeister'' was a historical military rank in some German and the Austro-Hungarian armies, especially in use for the artillery. It was commonly used in the 16th or 17th century, but could even be found at the beginning of the 20th century i ...
), owner of the Corps Artillery Regiment No. 4 and scientist.


Biography

The young Wilhelm was adjusted in the Artillery regiment Nr. 4 in 1823. He completed the higher course of his artillery training in the Austrian military training centres and the Bombardier Corps in 1826, moved there in 1831 to lieutenant. In the following years, Lenk served as commander of a Bombardier detachment in the federal
fortress of Mainz The Fortress of Mainz was a fortressed garrison town between 1620 and 1918. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, under the term of the 1815 Peace of Paris, the control of Mainz passed to the German Confederation and became part of a chain of st ...
. In 1839, he became first lieutenant in the Field Artillery Regiment Nr. 1, then in 1848
Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...
at
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
, as a captain in 1849 at
Peterwardein Petrovaradin ( sr-cyr, Петроварадин, ) is a historic town in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, now a part of the city of Novi Sad. As of 2011, the urban area has 14,810 inhabitants. Lying on the right bank of the Danube, across from t ...
and 1851 at
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
in the artillery stuff-administrative district of the 2nd Artillery regiment. He was assigned to the General Division Artillery and promoted to major at the end of 1852. Now he could completely dedicate his time to his work in the field of technical chemistry. On 1 April 1854, he was appointed lieutenant colonel and chairman of the second Department of General Artillery Directorate (Director of guncotton centre). He remained in this position until he promoted, out of the ranking tour, on 19 February 1861 to
brigadier general Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...
and was entrusted with the management of the Artillery Committees, then in 1862 followed the appointment as national director of artillery in Vienna. In this function he became the second owner of the Artillery Regiment No. 1 "Kaiser Franz Joseph" in 1866 and earned through the armouring of the bridgehead
Floridsdorf Floridsdorf (; Central Bavarian: ''Fluridsduaf'') is the 21st district of Vienna (german: 21. Bezirk, Floridsdorf), located in the northern part of the city and comprising seven formerly independent communities: Floridsdorf, Donaufeld, Greater Je ...
, the fortified camp near Vienna, as chief of artillery great merits during the war of 1866. Therefore, the emperor promoted him on November 9, 1867 (rank from November 13 of the year), to
major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...
(Feldmarschalleutnant), and in 1871 he appointed Wolfsberg to the owner of the Corps Artillery Regiment No. 4.Antonio Schmidt-Brentano: Die k. k. bzw. k. u. k. Generalität 1816–1918, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, 1907, p. 104 In April 1875, he entrusted him with the command of the fortress of
Olmütz Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on th ...
, which he headed until his retirement. On April 1, 1877, he got the rank of
Feldzeugmeister ''Feldzeugmeister'' was a historical military rank in some German and the Austro-Hungarian armies, especially in use for the artillery. It was commonly used in the 16th or 17th century, but could even be found at the beginning of the 20th century i ...
and retired at his own request.Constant von Wurzbach: ''Lenk von Wolfsberg, Wilhelm'', in: ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich''. 14. Teil. Verlag der k. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Wien 1865, p. 361–363


Technical achievements

The Baron occupied himself in 1849 with technical work, especially intensive with the improvement and consolidation of the
gun cotton Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...
trinitrocellulose. He tried to use the guncotton as blowing agent for guns. Therefore, the “K. K. Ärarische Schießwollanstalt” in Hirtenberg, a predecessor of today existing arms factory Hirtenberger AG, was established in 1851. The later Feldzeugmeister succeeded in generating a Trinitrocellulose 12H7(3NO4)O10 that met the military requirements for durability, uniform combustion with high combustion rate and temperature insensitivity up to an ignition point of 136 °C. Wolfsberg patented the process about his method of controlled compression of the fibre at the guncotton on June 4, 1864. Therefore, he was asked to give lectures in England and France. In France, he was allowed to report Emperor Napoleon III. personally and received from his hand the Commander's Cross of the Legion of Honour and a box provided with his initials and ornate with diamonds. However, by the end of 1865 the production was abandoned prematurely in fear of spontaneous combustion in Austria, due to explosions in two magazines.''Meyers Konversationslexikon''. vol. 18. 1890, p. 579
Anastasius Grün Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg, also known under the name Anastasius Grün (11 April 180612 September 1876), was an Austrian poet and liberal politician from Carniola, a former Habsburg crown land in today's Slovenia. Biography He was born ...
wrote: "It was a fatal rashness that the method to use guncotton as blowing agent in guns, developed by Major General Lenk of Wolfsberg, was not pursued further after the explosion of a depot. Finally, it was just the Austrian artillery, whose officers and graduates of the Engineering Academy were the main victims of the defeat at the
Battle of Königgrätz The Battle of Königgrätz (or Sadowa) was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire. It took place on 3 July 1866, near the Bohemian city of Hradec Králové (German: Königg ...
: the battery of the dead." Furthermore, Wilhelm invented a good corroborating percussion fuse, a shrapnel grenade, and collapsible tubes for mountain guns. He also gave a construction of the so-called wedge traits for rifled guns. The results convinced and had to go in equipping 30 field batteries.


Performance from today's perspective

His performance is still not forgotten. * Gerhard Freiherr von Ledebur wrote in his book about the historical representation of the sea mine, that Lenk succeeded in making a Trinitrocellulose, that fulfilled the military requirements for durability and uniform combustion with high efficiency. In the document the "European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences" * Wilhelm Lenk von Wolfsberg is mentioned in the "Inventions of 1849" along with the names of Ebelman, Halliday,
Max von Pettenkofer Max Joseph Pettenkofer, ennobled in 1883 as Max Joseph von Pettenkofer (3 December 1818 – 10 February 1901) was a Bavarian chemist and hygienist. He is known for his work in practical hygiene, as an apostle of good water, fresh air and proper ...
in the field of technological chemistry. * In the publication in honour on the 150th anniversary of Hirtenberger AG, which was established based on Lenk's desire, Wilhelm is designated there as a man with a revolutionary idea, but its technology was not yet ripe for that time. Ultimately, modern technology use his invention in the arms and ammunition technology since 1990. * The last mention finally comes from the Austrian Army in 2010: "In 1860 the Austrian officer Wilhelm Lenk von Wolfsberg improved the gun-cotton." Furthermore, the author pointed out to the indispensable additional use of this material for the production of torpedoes, beginning in the 1890s.


Awards (selection)

* Knight of the Royal Prussian Order of the Red Eagle, 3rd Class, ''15 May 1850'' * Knight of the Imperial Austrian Order of Leopold, ''1854'' * Order of Saint Stanislaus Second Class, ''ca. 1860'' * Knight of the Royal Prussian Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd Class, ''1861'' * Commander of the Royal Bavarian Merit Order of St. Michael, ''1863'' * Commander of the Imperial French Order Legion of Honour, ''1864'' * Austro-Hungarian Military Merit Cross with War Decoration, ''1866'' * Imperial Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, 2nd Class, ''1872'' * Imperial Persian Order of the Lion and the Sun, 1st Class


Family

Wilhelm was the son of Jacob Freiherr Lenk von Wolfsberg, Colonel and Knight of the Military Order of Maria Theresa. He married on June 24, 1833, in
Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...
Eveline Aloisia Schreher (b. November 2, 1810, Mainz; d. January 7, 1871, Troppau). They had five children. Rudolf (1834-1907), the eldest son, was an Austrian General, too. One of his daughters, Malwine (1839-1866), married the Austrian General Constantin Buol von Wischenau (1822-1893), the youngest, Friederike Berta (1843-1906), was the spouse of the deputy of the Austrian Imperial Council and large landowner's Karl Freiherr Putz von Rolsberg (1852-1921). She was the ancestress of the children of Count Alexander, son of Baron Alexander Wassilko von Serecki.Schweizerisches Geschlechterbuch - Almanach généalogique suisse, Band 3, Genealogisches Institut Zwicky, 1910, S. 90


Notes


References

*
Jean-Marie Michel : « Contribution à l'histoire industrielle des polymères en France »
* M. Pelouze: “On gun-cotton, with reference to the new methods of General Baron von Lenk for preparing and employing this substance“, in Philosophical Magazine, Series 4 (1871-1875), Volume 28, London 1864 * Siegfried Julius von von Romocki: „Geschichte der Explosivstoffe“, Band 2: „Die rauchschwachen Pulver in ihrer Entwicklung bis zur Gegenwart“, reprint from 1896, Verlag Dogma, Bremen 2013, * Constant von Wurzbach: ''Lenk von Wolfsberg, Jacob Freiherr'', in: ''
Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich'' (English, ''Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire'') (abbreviated ''Wurzbach'' from the author's surname) is a 60-volume work, edited and published by Constantin von Wurzbach, cont ...
''. 14. Teil. Verlag der k. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Wien 1865, S. 361–363
Digitalisat
* Antonio Schmidt-Brentano: Die k. k. bzw. k. u. k. Generalität 1816–1918, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, 1907


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenk von Wolfsberg, Wilhelm 1809 births 1894 deaths Austrian generals Barons of Austria Austro-Hungarian Army officers Moravian-German people People from Opava Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur