FLIEGNER

SWITZERLAND (see also List of Individuals)

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15.9.1842 Warschau/PL - 21.4.1928 Lugano/CH

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Albert Fliegner graduated as a mechanical engineer from the Swiss Polytechnic School, today's ETH, in 1867. He remained at ETH's Institute of theoretical mechanics and was appointed in 1871 professor of mechanical engineering, thereby succeeding Gustav Zeuner (1828-1907) who had moved to Dresden University. Fliegner presented both his lectures and his research in a mathematical approach and thus followed his colleagues Franz Grashof (1826-1893) and Zeuner. After retirement in 1912, Fliegner moved to Lugano to spend the rest of his life. His chair was taken over by Aurel Stodola (1859-1942).

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Fliegner took over a small hydraulic laboratory from his predecessor and expanded it during his long stay at ETH. He worked both as an experimenter and a theoretical researcher in various technical branches, including design of locomotives, resistance of railways, hydraulic machinery, steam hydraulics and pipelines. His 1879 paper aimed to add to the theory of turbines with a variety of applications on the Girard, the steam turbine and the Laval turbine. In the 1890s, he published several papers on the efflux of either water or steam from pressure chambers to describe the outflow process. Later he investigated the effect of fluid temperature on the outflow. Fliegner was in addition a promoter of the mountain railways that were widely erected in the last decades of the 19th century, particularly in the Swiss Alps. He was awarded Honorary Doctorates from Zurich University in 1901 and from Karlsruhe Technical University in 1914.

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_{Fliegner, A. (1878). Versuche über das Ausströmen der atmosphärischen Luft durch Mündungen in dünner Wand. Polytechnikum: Zürich.}

_{Fliegner, A. (1879). Versuche zur Theorie der Reactions-Turbinen. Zeitschrift VDI 23: 459-471. Fliegner, A. (1879). Theoretische Maschinenlehre. Polytechnikum: Zürich.}

_{Fliegner, A. (1897). Beitrag zur Theorie des Ausströmens der elastischen Flüssigkeiten. Vierteljahresschrift Naturforschende Gesellschaft Zürich 42: 317-346.}

_{Fliegner, A. (1903). Ein neuer Weg zur Berechnung der Staukurve. Schweizerische Bauzeitung}

_{42(8): 89-91.}

_{Ostertag, P. (1928). Albert Fliegner. Vierteljahresschrift Naturforschende Gesellschaft Zürich 73: 554-558, with bibliography.}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1898). Fliegner, Albert Friedrich. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 3: 453; 4: 432; 5: 374-375; 6: 765. Barth: Leipzig, Berlin, with bibliography.}

_{Stodola, A. (1928). Prof. Dr. phil.h.c. Dr. Ing.e.h. Albert Fliegner. Schweizerische Bauzeitung}

_{92(4): 48-50. P}