Rudolf Hell (19 December 1901 – 11 March 2002) was a German

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 ...

and

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 ...

Career

Hell was born in

Eggmühl Eggmühl (formerly known in English language, English as ''Eggmuhl'' or ''Eckmühl'') is a village of Germany, in Bavaria, on the Große Laaber, 20 km S.E. of Regensburg. Since 1978, it is part of the municipality Schierling.electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. He worked there from 1923 to 1929 as assistant of Prof. Max Dieckmann, with whom he operated a television station at the ''Verkehrsausstellung'' (lit.: "traffic exhibition") in Munich in 1925. In the same year Hell invented an apparatus called the '' Hellschreiber'', an early forerunner to impact dot matrix printers and faxes. Hell received a patent for the Hellschreiber in 1929. In the year 1929 he founded his own company in Babelsberg. After

World War II 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 ...

he re-founded his company in

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

. He kept on working as an engineer and invented machines for electronically controlled engraving of printing plates and an electronic photo typesetting system called ''digiset'' marketed in the US as ''VideoComp'' by RCA and later by III. He has received numerous awards such as the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz, the Werner von Siemens Ring and the Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor from the German Eduard Rhein Foundation (1992). His company was taken over by Siemens in 1981 and merged with Linotype in 1990, becoming ''Linotype-Hell AG''. Hellschreiber is still in use today by

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...

(ham) operators around the world. Hellverein Kiel collects Hell devices and keeps them functional. In addition, the website contains numerous documents and patents relating to the Hell devices: https://www.hell-kiel.de/en/

Death

Rudolf Hell died in

on 11 March 2002.

References

1901 births 2002 deaths People from Regensburg (district) 20th-century German inventors German men centenarians German electrical engineers Werner von Siemens Ring laureates Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Technical University of Munich alumni Engineers from Bavaria {{Germany-engineer-stub

Career

Death

See also

References