Jens William Ægidius Elling (also Aegidus or Aegidius) (26 July 1861 – 27 May 1949) was a Norwegian researcher, inventor and pioneer of gas turbines who is considered to be the father of the

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

. He built the first gas turbine that was able to produce more power than needed to run its own components. Elling was born in and grew up in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Norway. He studied mechanical engineering at Kristiania Technical College, (now part of Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences) graduating in 1881. Between 1885 and 1902, he worked as an engineer and designer at a number of workshops in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. His first gas turbine patent was granted in 1884. In 1903 he completed the first turbine that produced excess power; his original machine used both rotary compressors and turbines to produce net. He further developed the concept, and by 1912 he had developed a gas turbine system with separate turbine unit and

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Many compressors can be staged, that is, the gas is compressed several times in steps o ...

in series, a combination that is now common.''Gas Turbine History'' (TurboMachine.com)
One major challenge was to find materials that could withstand the high temperatures developed in the turbine to achieve high output powers. His 1903 turbine could withstand inlet temperatures up to 400°Celsius (752°F). Elling understood that if better materials could be found, the gas turbine would be an ideal power source for airplanes. Many years later, Sir

Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with co-creating the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 fo ...

, building on the early work of Elling, managed to build a practical gas turbine engine for an airplane, the

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...

. His gas turbine prototypes from 1903 and 1912 are exhibited at

Norsk Teknisk Museum The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology () is located in Oslo, Norway. The museum is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage. History The museum as an institution was founded in 1914 as a part of the commemorat ...

. Elling also did significant development work in other areas, such as steam engine controls, pumps, compressors, vacuum drying et cetera. In 1914 Elling produced a book called ''Billig opvarmning: veiledning i at behandle magasinovner økonomisk og letvint''. (), which was published by

Aschehoug H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), commonly known as Aschehoug,() is one of the largest independent publishing companies in Norway, founded in 1872. Headquartered in Oslo, the publishing house has 480 employees. The Aschehoug group also comprises o ...

. Books written by Elling are now rare, and are mostly found in museums and libraries.

References

External links

Norwegian Technical Museum's biography of Elling
(Norwegian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Elling, Aegidius 1861 births 1949 deaths Jet engine pioneers Norwegian inventors