Wilhelm Schmidt (engineer)

<h2 id="education">Education</h2>
<p>At school Wilhelm Schmidt had difficulties with reading, writing and arithmetic, a case of <a href="/facts/Dyslexia/9xzu9tga">dyslexia</a>. For example, he was unable to recite the alphabet without hesitation all his life. Nor could he memorise poetry or prose.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> He developed a passion for drawing, however, and for machines.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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<h2 id="career">Career</h2>

<p>Schmidt began his professional career as a machine fitter. He studied at the technical high school in <a href="/facts/Dresden/nKVXxIgq">Dresden</a> under <a href="/facts/Gustav_Zeuner/uW1QwJFr">Gustav Zeuner</a>.
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<h3>Superheated steam</h3>
<p>In 1883 he took a post as a <a href="/facts/Civil_engineer/RjIFIjNe">civil engineer</a> in <a href="/facts/Kassel/uw1m2263">Kassel</a>, where he developed superheated steam technology to the point where it could be practically used. In 1908 he transferred his home and the base of his firm to <a href="/facts/Benneckenstein/j0ulUv47">Benneckenstein</a> in the <a href="/facts/Harz_Mountains/NWFcnNhd">Harz</a>. He was not the first person to work with superheated steam, but his predecessors had only used steam temperatures up to 250 °C (482 °F; 523 K); Schmidt was the first to risk increasing this to 350 °C (662 °F; 623 K).
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<h3>Schmidt Superheated Steam Company</h3>
<p>For further trials with superheated steam on the <a href="/facts/Ilsenburg/lJBKcIPa">Ilsenburg</a> – <a href="/facts/Wernigerode/zNUr2kwV">Wernigerode</a> railway, there was a trials organisation near Wernigerode station. It was here that Schmidt founded the Schmidt Superheated Steam Company (<i>Schmidtsche Heissdampfgesellschaft</i>). 
</p><p>By using superheated <a href="/facts/Steam/RDGCdmzT">steam</a> the <a href="/facts/Thermal_efficiency/fR0ysNpr">thermal efficiency</a> of a steam engine could be raised by as much as 50%. This technology had a substantial influence on the development of the <a href="/facts/Steam_locomotive/cXEQwhFk">steam locomotive</a> and <a href="/facts/Steamship/Ay0fhKBW">steamship</a>, as well as all other applications where steam engines were used. Schmidt also invented other items, such as the <a href="/facts/Superheater/9Jq9HIu6">superheater</a> (around 1890) and the <a href="/facts/Piston_valve_(steam_engine)/GyImnvl5">piston valve</a>, which he developed together with <a href="/facts/Robert_Garbe/LJxGwXI5">Robert Garbe</a> of the <a href="/facts/Prussian_state_railways/fnk0Hhsa">Prussian state railways</a>.
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<h3>ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery</h3>
<p>Even today, his successor company - <i>Schmidt'schen Heissdampf GmbH</i>, survives under the name of ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery GmbH, in Kassel-Bettenhausen. It develops and builds apparatus for the processes involving the transfer of heat in the <a href="/facts/Petrochemical/mzYsaxng">petrochemical</a>, <a href="/facts/Chemical_industry/3M6gfHer">chemical</a> and <a href="/facts/Metallurgy/1SANyxX4">metallurgical</a> industries, e.g. <a href="/facts/Cracking_(chemistry)/EBLtwW4g">cracked</a> gas coolers for the manufacture of <a href="/facts/Ethylene/QMNBYLYn">ethylene</a>, gas coolers for the manufacture of <a href="/facts/Methanol/EIfpoNCg">methanol</a>, <a href="/facts/Ammonia/MtLtJFtz">ammonia</a> and <a href="/facts/Hydrogen/BoYHjl0J">hydrogen</a> and a multitude of equipment for special purposes. The company continues to be highly innovative and a market leader in its field.
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<h2 id="religious-views">Religious views</h2>
<p>Schmidt viewed his inventions however as rather unimportant in view of "a world which is badly lost". He held a strong faith and distributed <i>Warning Cry to the People</i> (<i>Mahnrufe an das Volk</i>) from Bethel, near <a href="/facts/Bielefeld/MNI75EqP">Bielefeld</a>. He was friends with <a href="/facts/Friedrich_von_Bodelschwingh/1nyYSwXB">Friedrich von Bodelschwingh</a>. He held the view that Anglo-Saxon Christianity had weakened German Christianity.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> He died on 16 February 1924 in Bethel.
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<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Martin Haug: Die einen guten Kampf gekämpft. Lebensbilder deutscher Männer. 11th edn. Calver Verlag, Stuttgart, 1978, ISBN 3-7668-0083-3, p. 210 <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>Martin Haug: Die einen guten Kampf gekämpft. Lebensbilder deutscher Männer. 11th edn. Calver Verlag, Stuttgart, 1978, ISBN 3-7668-0083-3, p. 212 <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Entry in Ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon <a href="http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienW/Wilhelm_Schmidt.html" target="_blank">http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienW/Wilhelm_Schmidt.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Wilhelm Schmidt (engineer) open-in-new

Wilhelm Schmidt (engineer)