Jens William Ægidius Elling (also Aegidus or Aegidius) (26 July 1861 – 27 May 1949) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

researcher, inventor and pioneer of gas turbines who is considered to be the father of the

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...

. He built the first gas turbine that was able to produce more power than needed to run its own components. Elling was born in and grew up in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, Norway. He studied mechanical engineering at Kristiania Technical College, (now part of

Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences Oslo and Akershus University College ( no, Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus, abbr. HiOA) was the largest state university college in Norway from its establishment in 2011 until 2018, when it was transformed into Oslo Metropolitan University, the youn ...

) graduating in 1881. Between 1885 and 1902, he worked as an engineer and designer at a number of workshops in

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and

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. His first gas turbine patent was granted in 1884. In 1903 he completed the first turbine that produced excess power; his original machine used both rotary compressors and turbines to produce net. He further developed the concept, and by 1912 he had developed a gas turbine system with separate turbine unit and

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can tr ...

in series, a combination that is now common. ''Gas Turbine History'' (TurboMachine.com)
One major challenge was to find materials that could withstand the high temperatures developed in the turbine to achieve high output powers. His 1903 turbine could withstand inlet temperatures up to 400° Celsius (752° F). Elling understood that if better materials could be found, the gas turbine would be an ideal power source for airplanes. Many years later, Sir

Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 fo ...

, building on the early work of Elling, managed to build a practical gas turbine engine for an airplane, the

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...

. His gas turbine prototypes from 1903 and 1912 are exhibited at Norsk Teknisk Museum in

. Elling also did significant development work in other areas, such as steam engine controls, pumps, compressors, vacuum drying et cetera. In 1914 Elling produced a book called ''Billig opvarmning: veiledning i at behandle magasinovner økonomisk og letvint''. ( en, Cheap Heating: Guidance for the simple and economical treatment of base burners), which was published by

Aschehoug H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), commonly known as Aschehoug,() is one of the largest independent publishing companies in Norway, founded in 1872. Headquartered in Oslo, the publishing house has 480 employees. The Aschehoug group also comprises ot ...

. Books written by Elling are now rare, and are mostly found in museums and libraries.

References

External links

Norwegian Technical Museum's biography of Elling
(Norwegian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Elling, Aegidius 1861 births 1949 deaths Jet engine pioneers Norwegian inventors