PECHMANN

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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26.2.1774 Regen/D - 4.7.1861 München/D

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Heinrich von Pechmann was educated as an officer in the Bavarian Army, and there got acquainted with mathematical and physical knowledge as a lieutenant. However, he fell out with a superior and started in 1818 with the Bavarian state construction department as Oberbaurat. In 1826, the Bavarian King Ludwig I asked von Pechmann to design a navigation canal between Danube and Main Rivers and thus connect the Atlantic with the Black Sea. As for most of the inland canals, the summit reach posed extraordinary hydraulic problems in terms of water supply. In the 1830s Karl Friedrich von Wiebeking (1762-1842) was one of the opponents of this canal. However, the execution of the canal was decided with von Pechmann as the director of works from 1836 until inauguration in 1845. The 1846 report on this early canal project summarizes the main features of von Pechmann's design.

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von Pechmann was the author of the 1825 book which remains a precious source of river engineering of the early 19th century. The book is subdivided into two volumes of which the first has the eight sections: (1) Characteristics of rivers, (2) Hydrometry, (3) Construction of fascines, (4) River shore protection, (5) Spur dikes, (6) River cuts, (7) Plantations and rivers, and (8) Damages by rivers. Volume 2 published in 1826 has the sections: (9) River weirs, (10) Navigation of rivers, (11) River dike construction, and (12) Drainage of swamps. The work contains a total of 97 tables exceptionally rich in details and differing significantly form German works of that time.

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_{Bosl, K. (1983). Heinrich Freiherr von Pechmann. Bosls Bayerische Biographie: 576. Pustet: Regensburg.}

_{Franke, P.-G., Kleinschroth, A. (1991). Heinrich von Pechmann. Kurzbiographien Hydraulik und Wasserbau: 128-129. Lipp: München. P}

_{Kleinschroth, A. (2001). Heinrich Josef Alois Pechmann. Neue Deutsche Biographie 20: 152. König, R. (1976). Der Ludwig-Canal. Bauwelt 67(40/41): 1263-1278.}

_{Pechmann, H. von (1825). Praktische Anleitung zum Flussbaue. Lindauer: München. Pechmann, H. von (1832). Entwurf für den Kanal zur Verbindung der Donau mit dem Main. München.}

_{Pechmann, H. von (1846). Der Ludwig-Canal: Eine kurze Beschreibung und die Ausführung desselben. Lindauer: München.}

_{Pechmann, H. von (1847). Beiträge für die Baukunst mit vorzüglicher Hinsicht auf Bayern.}

_{Palm: München.}