Emil Huber-Stockar
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Emil Huber-Stockar (July 15, 1865 – May 9, 1939) was a
Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...
entrepreneur and railway pioneer. He was an instrumental figure in the
electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...
of the
Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...
railway network and worked as lead engineer and consultant for the
Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...
.


Life

Huber was born on July 15, 1865, in Zürich-
Riesbach Riesbach is a district in the Swiss city of Zürich. It is District number 8. History The district comprises the quarters Seefeld, Mühlebach and Weinegg. Riesbach was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Zürich ...
,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
the son of Peter Emil and Anna Marie (née Werdmüller). His father hailed from a wealthy textile manufacturer family. His father was a former chairman of Oerlikon Buehrle and a pioneer of the
machinery A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolec ...
and electric industry. He had a prosper upbringing in Zürich District 7. After training as a mechanical engineer at the
ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...
(Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zürich) and spending some years in America, Huber took over the management of the
Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon was a Swiss engineering company based in the Zürich district of Oerlikon (Zürich), Oerlikon known for the early development of electric locomotives. It was founded in 1876 as the ''Werkzeug- und Maschinen-Fabrik Oer ...
, founded by his father Peter Emil Huber-Werdmüller, near
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
, Switzerland. He focussed on solving the difficulties of high power, electrically powered mainline railway systems. In 1904, he electrified the Seebach-Wettingen line with high-voltage
alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...
(15,000 volts) at low
frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...
(15 Hertz). This experimental operation was successful. The first railway to use this system (standard in several European countries today, but with a frequency of 16.7 Hertz) was the Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon railway. In 1925, Emil Huber-Stockar received an honorary doctorate from the ETH Zurich for his achievements.


Family

Emil Huber-Stockar was the son of
Peter Emil Huber-Werdmüller Peter Emil Huber-Werdmüller (24 December 1836 – 4 October 1915) was a Swiss industrialist who founded the engineering company Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon. He was the son of Johann Rudolf Huber, a Zürich silk manufacturer and studied mechanical eng ...
and brother of lawyer and diplomat Max Huber. In 1895, Emil married Marie Helena Stockar, daughter of Hans Julius, a lawyer.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huber-Stockar, Emil 1865 births 1939 deaths People from Zurich Swiss electrical engineers