František Křižík (; 8 July 1847 – 22 January 1941) was a Czech inventor, electrical engineer and entrepreneur.

Biography

Křižík was born on 8 July 1847 in a poor family in Plánice. His father, a shoemaker, died early. When he was 12, the family moved 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 ...

, where he began studying, but for financial reasons he did not graduate from the real school. However, due to his significant technical talent, he was still accepted to the Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT) in 1866. After completing his studies at the university, Křižík was first employed at the Kaufmann factory for the production of telegraphs and signals as a repairman for telegraph devices. He soon began to make his own discoveries. Křižík is considered the pioneer of practical electrical engineering and in electrification of Bohemia and

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. At the time he was often compared to

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

. In 1878, Křižík invented a remotely operated signaling device to protect against collision between

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

s. Křižík's cores are magnetic solenoids cores shaped so as to ensure an approximately uniform pull in different positions in the solenoid. His first experiments in

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

resulted in the invention in 1880 of the automatic electric arc lamp, the so-called "Plzen Lamp" which was displayed at the International Exposition of Electricity in Paris in 1881. This lamp, with self-adjusting brushes, won the gold medal from among 50 similar devices. Later he successfully defended his patent against

Werner von Siemens Ernst Werner Siemens ( von Siemens from 1888; ; ; 13 December 1816 – 6 December 1892) was a German electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist. Siemens's name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens. He ...

claim to have created it first. His lamps were successfully used in many cities for street lighting. The restored and fully functional patented arc lamp with automated electrode adjustment can be viewed at the Museum of Plzeň. In 1884 Křižík set up his own company building city lighting, tramway lines, street cars, power stations, and various electric equipment. In 1895, Křižík built one of first electromobiles in Austria-Hungary. He was active freemason since 1881 when he joined masonic lodge ''Harmonie'' in

. He was later active as member of lodge ''Jan Amos Komenský'' and later lodge ''Sibi et posteris'' in

. In 1923, František Křižík was one of the founders nad patrons of the National Czechoslovak Grand Lodge.

Electrified railway Tábor–Bechyně

František Křižík built the first electrified railway in the Austro-Hungarian empire from

Tábor Tábor (; ) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants, making it the second most populated town in the region. The town was founded by the Hussites in 1420. The historic town centre is well pres ...

to Bechyně in 1903. The track gauge was . The maximum speed was .

Honours

The main belt asteroid 5719 Křižík was named in his honour. A Prague street and subsequently near subway station were named after František Křižík – Křižíkova.

References

External links

Biography
on converter.cz
František Křižík
has diagram of his differential arc lamp {{DEFAULTSORT:Krizik, Frantisek 1847 births 1941 deaths People from Plánice Inventors from Austria-Hungary Engineers from Austria-Hungary Businesspeople from Austria-Hungary Czech engineers Czech inventors Czech Freemasons 20th-century Czech businesspeople Czech Technical University in Prague alumni 19th-century Czech businesspeople Czech people from Austria-Hungary Czechoslovak businesspeople