Hermann Plauson (1874 – after 1944) was an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

. Plauson investigated, among other things, the production of

power Power may refer to: Common meanings * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power, a type of energy * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events Math ...

based on

atmospheric electricity Atmospheric electricity describes the electrical charges in the Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet). The movement of charge between the Earth's surface, the atmosphere, and the ionosphere is known as the global atmospheric electrica ...

Biography

Plauson was born in

Dorpat Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

, Estonia. He was the director of the Fischer–Tropsch "'' Otto Traun

Research Laboratories A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

''" in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

during the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

of the 1920s. He built on

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla (;"Tesla"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...

's idea for connecting machinery to the "wheelwork of nature". Plauson's patent no. 1540998 describe methods to convert alternating radiant

static electricity Static electricity is an imbalance of electric charges within or on the surface of a material. The charge remains until it can move away by an electric current or electrical discharge. The word "static" is used to differentiate it from electric ...

into rectified continuous current pulses. His systems mainly involved needle & radium- coated electricity conducting balloons or aerostats which were connected to complex converting systems consisting of coils,

capacitor In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...

spark gap A spark gap consists of an arrangement of two Conductor (material), conducting electrodes separated by a gap usually filled with a gas such as air, designed to allow an electric spark to pass between the conductors. When the potential differenc ...

s etc. He developed an

electrostatic generator An electrostatic generator, or electrostatic machine, is an electric generator, electrical generator that produces ''static electricity'', or electricity at high voltage and low continuous current. The knowledge of static electricity dates back t ...

called ''Plauson's converter''. In 1920, Plauson published a research journal on the subject, titled "Production and Utilization of the Atmospheric Electricity" (Gr., ''Gewinnung und Verwertung der Atmosphärischen Elektrizität''). A second, expanded edition of his journal was published later the same year. A copy of that edition is in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

at shelf mark 8754.b.36. A copy is also available in PDF-format, complete with Optical Character Recognition, through the books2ebooks service
here
He married fellow Gertrud Therese Dora Hildenbrandt in London in 1920. Their son Harald was born in Hamburg in 1923. He was killed on the Eastern Front in the Second World War.''Germany, Military Killed in Action, 1939–1948''

Patents

Personal patents
''American'' * – H. Plauson – "''Manufacture of dispersiods, colloid powder, and masses therefrom''" * – H. Plauson – "''Reclaiming rubber''" * – H. Plauson – "''Process of the manufacture of Alkyl Ethers of Vinyl alcohols and homologues therefore''" * – G. Plauson – "''Method of carrying out electrochemical reactions and apparatus for the use therein''" * – H. Plauson – "''Conversion of atmospheric electric energy''" * – H. Plauson – "''Process for the manufacture of rubber and ebonite substitutes''" ''Other'' *"
Use of Beta-rays and X-rays in Synthesizing Liquid Hydro-carbons From Gaseous Compounds
'". GB309002, Dec. 30, 1927. Chem. Abs., vol. 24, 1930, p. 299 Company patents (Traun's Forschungs laboratorium) * "
Process and apparatus for converting static atmospheric electrical energy into dynamic electrical energy of any suitable high periodicity
'" – GB157263 * "
Improvements in electric motors
'" – GB157262 * "
Process of synthesis of liquid hydrocarbons
'" – GB309002

References

External articles

* "

'". ''Science and Invention'' (Formerly Electrical Experimenter), Feb. 1922, no. 10. Vol IX, Whole No. 106. New York. (nuenergy.org) * "
Power from the Air
'". Science and invention (Formerly electrical experimenter), March 1922. (nuenergy.org). {{DEFAULTSORT:Plauson, Hermann Estonian engineers 1874 births People from Tartu Year of death missing