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Adolf Klose (21 May 1844 – 2 September 1923) was the chief engineer of the
Royal Württemberg State Railways The Royal Württemberg State Railways (''Königlich Württembergische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.W.St.E.'') were the state railways of the Kingdom of Württemberg (from 1918 the ''People's State of Württemberg'') between 1843 and 1920. Please ...
in southern
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
from June 1885 to 1896. Klose was born in Bernstadt auf dem Eigen, in
Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
. Before his taking up his post in Stuttgart he had been the technical inspector of the United Swiss Railways (''Vereinigten Schweizerbahnen''). After a period of depending on
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
n prototypes between 1865 and 1885, a new engineering direction followed under Klose's time in office. It was stamped by numerous home-grown ideas and discoveries. In particular he promoted the introduction of
compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...
working for
steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
in
Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...
. The patented Klose steering (''Klose-Lenkwerk'') carries his name. This was a multipartite and complex device for steam locomotives, which controlled the radial setting of leading and trailing wheelsets in order to improve curve running. Unfortunately, its costly maintenance and tendency to develop faults meant that his invention had no lasting success, something which was true of many other of his devices. In 1906, Rudolf Diesel, Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded ''Gesellschaft für Thermolokomotiven, Diesel-Klose-Sulzer GmbH'' for the manufacture of diesel-powered locomotives. The company produced one diesel-mechanical locomotive for the Prussian State Railways in 1912. Adolf Klose died on 2 September 1923 in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
,
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
.


Literature

* Mühl/Seidel: Die Württembergischen Staatseisenbahnen. Konrad Theiss Verlag Stuttgart und Aalen, 1970


References


External links


People of the town of Bernstadt auf dem Eigen (German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klose, Adolf 1844 births 1923 deaths People from Görlitz (district) People from the Kingdom of Saxony 19th-century German inventors German railway mechanical engineers Engineers from Saxony