KOECHLIN A

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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3.8.1789 Mulhouse/F - 24.4.1875 Mulhouse/F

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André Koechlin was an industrial, a mayor, a general and a deputy. He directed the Dollfus- Mieg works in Mulhouse from 1818. Shortly later he founded another work in the metallurgy sector. The iron works A. Koechlin & Cie, the future Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques had an European reputation. The first locomotive Napoléon was launched in 1839, and hundreds followed for the European market. His generosity towards the public was widely acknowledged and Koechlin's support of the Alsace County found appreciation; he was a Cavalier of Légion d'Honneur.

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Koechlin was involved in turbine design, following the invention of Benoît Fourneyron (1802-1867) in 1826. Koechlin started with turbine design in 1834 and largely involved his collaborator and head of the workshop Nicolas-Joseph Jonval (1804-1844). Jonval had traveled in the late 1830s to Braunschweig in Germany to contact Carl Anton Henschel (1780-1861), who had presented a turbine design in 1837. Jonval improved Henschel's design and submitted a patent in 1841. For unknown reasons, Jonval then turned ill such that Koechlin improved alone the Jonval turbine and submitted a second patent in 1843 describing the essentials of the Jonval-Koechlin turbine. Pierre-Lucien Fontaine (1809-1895) later developed both the Jonval and the Jonval-Koechlin turbines and may be considered the last French engineer of the pioneering era of basic turbine engineering. A review of the various designs presented Armengaud in 1858.

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_{Anonymous (1867). Henschel-Turbine. Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutscher Ingenieure 11(8): 488.}

_{Armengaud, A. (1858). Turbine en dessus, dite turbine Jonval-Koechlin. Traité théorique et pratique des moteurs hydrauliques: 346-361. Armengaud: Paris.}

_{Benoît, S., Dufresne, G., Emptoz, G., Guiard, J.-P. (1990). Les turbines Fontaine au temps des fondateurs de la Maison de Chartres 1837-1873. Le moteur hydraulique en France au 19e siècle. Cahiers d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences 29: 151-317.}

_{Burstall, A.F. (1963). A history of mechanical engineering: 243-285. Faber and Faber: London. Hoefer, X. (1858). André Koechlin. Nouvelle Biographie générale 27: 956-957.}

_{Jonval, N.J. (1841). Système de machines hydrauliques, dit veine virtuelle, turbine Jonval.}

_{Brevet d'invention: Paris.}

_{Koechlin, A. (1843). Perfectionnements apportés à la disposition et à l'organisation des turbines et à l'admission de l'eau dans les roues hydrauliques en général. Brevet d'invention déposé le 24. Mai: Paris. http://www.koechlin.net/ancetres/andre.htm P}