FUNK

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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21.9.1768 Neuen-Rhese/D - 13.1.1820 Berlin/D

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Frank Ernst Theodor Funk was a Landbaumeister of the duchesse of Minden from 1785 and promoted to Baumeister, a kind of a combination between an engineer and an architect, from 1795. From 1797 he headed the hydraulic works of the Brandenburg Province and was promoted to Strombaumeister of the Prussian rivers in 1809. He was finally appointed Ober-Baurath and a Member of the Ober-Baudeputation of the capital Berlin.

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Funk is known for a number of books in hydraulic engineering. In 1808, his contributions to hydraulic engineering were published which may be regarded a forerunner of those later expanded by Gotthilf Hagen (1797-1884), the great German hydraulic engineer. The book contains a section on hydraulic experiments conducted by Funk and a section on how hydraulic works and machinery were computed. The second document of note was his hydrotechnics book of 1820, a more physical approach to fluid flow as compared with the earlier engineering text. As a practicing engineer of the time, Funk rather presented knowledge from projects than the then existing theory of fluid flow. The latter resulted in solutions that were often in disagreement with experience, such as for river flow, where the effect of fluid viscosity and relative roughness were not yet known. Johann Eytelwein (1764-1848) has also reported some data of Funk. Funk's life was too short to have a lasting influence on the developments in hydraulics but most of his observations were then critically reviewed by the great German engineers of the 19th century, among which Hagen deserves particular note.

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_{Eytelwein, J.A. (1814). Untersuchungen über die Bewegung des Wassers, wenn auf die Contraction, welche beim Durchgang durch verschiedene Öffnungen statt finden, und auf den Widerstand, der die Bewegung des Wassers längs den Wänden verzögert, Rücksicht genommen wird. Abhandlungen K. Akademie der Wissenschaften Berlin: 137-178.}

_{Funk, F. (1808). Beyträge zur allgemeinen Wasser-Baukunst oder (1) ausführliche Beschreibung der grossen und zahlreichen hydrometrischen Versuche, oder (2) ausführliche Maschinen-Berechnungen und andere hydraulische Untersuchungen. Meyer: Lemgo.}

_{Funk, F. (1820). Versuch einer auf Erfahrung und Theorie gegründeten Darstellung der wichtigsten Lehren der Hydrotechnik. Nauck: Berlin.}

_{Meusel, J.G. (1831). Funk, Friedrich Ernst Theodor. Das gelehrte Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert nebst Supplementen zur 5. Ausgabe 10: 268-269. Meyer: Lemgo. Poggendorff, J.C. (1863). Funk, Franz Ernst Theodor. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 1: 816. Barth: Leipzig, with bibliography.}