HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

František Janeček (1878–1941) was the founder of Jawa motorcycles and an important figure in the development of the Czechoslovakian motorcycle industry. He died on 4 June 1941.


Early life

Janeček was born on 23 January 1878 in Klášter nad Dědinou, a small village in
Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
in the present-day
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
. He went to
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
to study mechanics at the Prague Technical School and then moved to
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
to the Berlin College of Engineering. Upon graduation he returned to Prague and began working for the Jewish industrialist Emil Kolben at the Kolben company. He did well and when he was only 23 he was appointed manager of the new factory opened by Kolben in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, where he met his future wife. He was hit by a car when riding his bicycle to work. The daughter of the driver gave him first aid, and they became friends and later married. At the age of 31 years, motivated by his success at designing inventions, Janeček decided to quit Kolben and start his own engineering workshop in Prague.


The pneumograf

During the ten years after he moved to Prague, Janeček's mechanical research workshop performed hundreds of experiments and registered dozens of patents. The most successful ones were related to sound recordings. He also spent some time travelling around Europe (Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and England, among other places), looking for many technological innovations and new ways to organize work. Still, his greatest commercial prospects were placed on an invention known as the ''pneumograf'' (''pneumograph''). It consisted in a pneumatic system with a series of air tubes which activated a mesh of tiles, that each one had a black face and a white face. When air flowed through an individual tube, the tile attached to it would flip, revealing its white face and allowing to show an image on the background of black tiles. This way, the pneumograph could display several advertisements and daily reports. A prototype was presented on the top of a building in the Národní avenue in Prague, located at the Jungmannovo náměstí 761/1 address, drawing the public's attention. Janeček's plans included the installation of other pneumographs in Berlin, Warsaw and St. Petersburg. However, the arrival of the First World War put negotiations to a halt, and his project was never developed.


World War I

After serving on the Italian front in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
Janeček experienced a prolific period of designing and inventing and secured over sixty new patents, including a design for an improved
hand grenade A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...
The grenade, named Model 21, became the standard hand grenade of the Czechoslovak army, and was nicknamed the "Janeček".


Motorcycle development

Janeček saw an opportunity in 1927 to turn a former armament factory into a
motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...
manufacturing company. He drew on his knowledge of engineering and his experience with factory mass production techniques and based his new motorcycle designs around an existing 498cc engine made by a German company called ''
Wanderer Wanderer, Wanderers, or The Wanderer may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theater * The Wanderer (1913 film), ''The Wanderer'' (1913 film), a silent film * The Wanderer (1925 film), ''The Wanderer'' (1925 film), a silen ...
''. The new company was named ''JAWA'' in 1929, a compound of the first two letters of Janeček and Wanderer. Janeček first began producing Wanderer motorcycles under license in 1927 in order to diversify the interests of his arms factory. His first motorcycle had a number of advanced features, including shift-drive and a steel frame. He was able to recruit an experienced British motorcycle designer George William Patchett, and together they developed a range of competition motorcycles to promote the new Jawa brand. In the 1930s Janeček expanded the range to include lightweight economy models based around British Villiers two-stroke engines, as well as middleweight 350cc side valve and overhead valve motorcycles under the Jawa brand (e.g. Jawa 350).


World War II

When
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
was occupied by
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
in 1938 Janeček was forced to turn his factory over to the occupying command and it was used to produce German aircraft engines and generators. He continued to work in secret on the development of single-cylinder two-stroke motorcycles and the production was restarted following the end of the war. František Janeček died on 4 June 1941 and the Jawa company was then taken over by his son Karel Janeček.


Littlejohn adaptor

The
Littlejohn adaptor The Littlejohn adaptor was a device that could be added to the British QF 2 pounder (40 mm) anti-tank gun. It was used to extend the service life of the 2-pounder during the Second World War by converting it to squeeze bore operation. "Lit ...
was a device that could be fitted on to the British QF 2 pounder (40 mm) anti-tank gun. It was used to extend the service life of the 2-pounder during World War II by converting it to
squeeze bore A squeeze bore, alternatively taper-bore, cone barrel or conical barrel, is a weapon where the internal gun barrel, barrel diameter progressively decreases towards the muzzle (firearms), muzzle, resulting in a reduced final internal diameter. Thes ...
operation. "Littlejohn" came from the literal anglicization of František Janeček's name.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Janecek, Frantisek 1878 births 1941 deaths Czech engineers Motorcycle designers Czechoslovak engineers Expatriates from Austria-Hungary in Germany