Adolph Giesl-Gieslingen (7 September 1903 – 11 February 1992) was an Austrian

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

designer and engineer. Giesl-Gieslingen was born in 1903 in Trient, Tirol, and studied at the

Technical College An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. In 1924 he published a technical article on smokebox design and chimneys. In 1925 he received his diploma as an engineer, and began working as a design engineer at the Floridsdorf locomotive works, where he was involved in the construction of the Class 214 2-8-4s. While at Floridorf he continued his studies, being interested in developing the rectangular chimney design developed by Golsdorf in Austria, and finished his doctoral thesis on locomotive front-end design in 1929.

To the United States

In 1929 the director, Arno Demmer, sent him to the United States, where he stayed until 1938, working on the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

testing a Kylala blastpipe. There he got to know his wife, whom he married in 1933 in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Return to Austria

After his return he became Demmer's assistant and, after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, chief engineer of the Floridsdorf company. In 1946 he took up his post as honorary professor at the Technical College in Vienna as the successor to Johann Rihosek.

Giesl ejector

He developed the Giesl ejector for steam locomotives, which he patented and allowed to be sold by the Schoeller-Bleckmann works. The first notable application of this was to an Austrian 2-8-4 where fitting of the Giesl ejector produced a 25% increase in power output and a small saving in coal. As a result, Giesl ejectors were fitted to locomotives in Austria, East Germany, East Africa and Czechoslovakia. British Railways 9F locomotive No. 92250 was tested at Rugby with a Giesl ejector which demonstrated its effectiveness but due to imminent dieselisation no other locomotives were so fitted. Giesl later published several books on the subject of steam locomotive technology through the Viennese publishers of ''Verlag Slezak''. The effectiveness of the Giesl ejector, being slightly better than the Kylchap exhaust, has led to two preserved locomotives in the UK being fitted with it; Bulleid Pacific No. 34092 ''City of Wells'' and

BR standard class 2 2-6-0 The BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0 is a class of steam locomotive, one of the British Railways Standard classes of the 1950s. They were physically the smallest of the Standard classes; 65 were built. Overview The design was derived from the George I ...

No. 78022.

Death

Adolph Giesl-Gieslingen died on 11 February 1992 in Vienna.

References

Sources

* Ernst Kabelka, ''In memoriam Professor Giesl-Gieslingen'', in ''Schienenverkehr aktuell'', 4/1992, S. 8. * Ingrid Trummer, Alexander Stollhof (Hrsg), ''"...Bei uns in der Lofag...", Erinnerungen an die Floridsdorfer Lokomotivfabrik - Wiens größter Industriebetrieb'', Edition Volkshochschule, Wien 2005,

Literature

* ''Lokomotiv-Athleten. Geschichte, Leistung und Kurvenlauf der Sechs- und Siebenkuppler'', Verlag Slezak, Wien 1976, * ''Die Ära nach Gölsdorf. Die letzten 3 Jahrzehnte des österreichischen Dampflokomotivbaus'', Verlag Slezak, Wien 1981, * ''Anatomie der Dampflokomotive International'', Verlag Slezak, Wien 1986, {{DEFAULTSORT:Giesl-Gieslingen, Adolph 1903 births 1992 deaths Austrian railway mechanical engineers Austrian people in rail transport 20th-century Austrian inventors People from Trento Businesspeople from Vienna TU Wien alumni Locomotive builders and designers 20th-century Austrian businesspeople