Carl Paul Gottfried von Linde (born 11 June 1842 in Berndorf (Oberfranken); died 16 November 1934 in Munich) was a German engineer who developed the basics of modern refrigeration technology. Linde was a member of scientific and engineering associations, including being on the board of trustees of the German National Metrology Institute and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. June 11 is the 162nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (163rd in leap years), with 203 days remaining. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Oberfranken (Upper Franconia) is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... 1934 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München (pronounced listen) is the state capital of the German Bundesland of Bavaria. ... Refrigeration (from the Latin frigus, frost) is generally the cooling of a body by the transfer of a portion of its heat away from it. ... The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) is based in Braunschweig and Berlin. ...

Biography

Early years

Born the son of a priest, Linde was expected to follow in his father's footsteps, but took another direction entirely. In 1861, he started a course in engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland, where his teachers included Rudolf Clausius, Gustav Zeuner and Franz Reuleaux. ETH Zurich (from its German name Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, ETHZ) is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland. ... Rudolf Clausius - physicist and mathematician Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (January 2, 1822 – August 24, 1888), was a German physicist and mathematician. ... Gustav Anton Zeuner, born 30 November 1828 in Chemnitz, died 17 October 1907 in Dresden, was a German physicist, engineer and epistemologist, considered the founder of technical thermodynamics and of the Dresden School of thermodynamics. ... Franz Reuleaux (September 30, 1829 - August 20, 1905), was a mechanical engineer and a lecturer of Berlin Royal Technical Academy, later appointed as the President of the Academy. ...

In 1864 Linde finished university, and Reuleaux found him a position as an apprentice at the Kottern cotton-spinning plant in Berlin. He started there the same year but stayed only a short time before moving to the new Krauss locomotive factory in Munich, where he worked as a construction engineer. Linde married Helene Grimm in February 1866; their marriage lasted 53 years and they had six children. Berlin (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005); down from 4. ...

In 1868 Linde heard about the opening of a new university in Munich (the Technische Hochschule) and immediately applied for a job as a lecturer; when he was accepted for the position he was only 26 years old. Linde set up an engineering lab, where students such as Rudolf Diesel studied the subject. Munich University of Technology, or Technical University of Munich (TUM) (German: Technische Universität München, TUM), is a major German university, located in Munich (and the towns of Garching and Weihenstephan out of Munich). ... Rudolf Diesel Rudolf Diesel (March 18, 1858 - September 30, 1913) was a German inventor, famous for the invention of the Diesel engine. ...

Middle years

In 1871 Linde published an essay on improved refrigeration techniques. This caught the interest of a large number of breweries, and soon Linde was supplying them with his refrigerating machines, while constantly working to improve them. Refrigeration (from the Latin frigus, frost) is generally the cooling of a body by the transfer of a portion of its heat away from it. ... A brewery is a facility that produces beer. ...

In 1878 Linde made the decision to put all his time and effort into the production of refrigerating machinery; he gave up his professorship and founded a refrigerating company, Lindes Eismaschinen AG, (now Linde AG) in Wiesbaden. Business went well; the company sold products to breweries, slaughterhouses and cold storage companies all over Europe. Linde AG is a manufacturer of refrigeration technology and other chemical products headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany. ... Wiesbaden is a city in central Germany. ...

In 1890, Linde moved back to Munich, where he took up his professorship once more, and developed his new, ground-breaking refrigeration technique, now known as the "Linde technique" (see Inventions). In 1895, Linde files for patent protection of his process for liquefaction of atmospheric air or other gases (approved in 1903). In 1901, Linde began work on a technique to obtain pure oxygen and nitrogen. 1895 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of an invention. ...

Later years and Death

From 1910 Linde withdrew from his position as head of his now hugely successful company, passing on the leadership to his sons Friedrich and Richard. The Great Depression of 1929 was a hard blow to Linde AG, but the company rallied and Linde saw profits start to rise before his death in 1934 at the age of 92. 1910 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Great Depression was a massive global economic recession (or depression) that ran from 1929 to 1941. ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Inventions

Linde developed the basic techniques of modern refrigeration. In 1871 he invented a system which worked on methyl ether, which was built at Augsburg engineering works. The second generation of refrigerators, from 1876, worked on nitrogen. Both systems used the principle of cooling gas; until then cooling had taken place mechanically. In 1894, following a request from the Guinness brewery in Dublin for a new cooling technique, Linde developed a revolutionary new method (Linde technique) for the liquefaction of large quantities of air. Augsburg is a city in south central Germany. ... See also Guinness Book of Records. ... Dublins Hapenny Bridge. ...

Linde's method was based on the works of James Prescott Joule and Lord Kelvin, and the introduction of the countercurrent technique. Air is sucked into the machine, where it is compressed, pre-cooled and decompressed; at this point it cools down. In the countercurrent heat exchanger, the air which has already been cooled is used to cool more compressed air, which again cools the next input of air. Continual repetition leads to further lowering of the temperature until the air is liquified. Linde's invention made it possible for physicists to study cryogenics and separate the elements of liquid air by fractional distillation. James Prescott Joule (December 24, 1818–October 11, 1889) was an English physicist, born in Salford, near Manchester. ... This article is about the physicist; there was also an Archbishop of York of the same name. ... Cryogenics is the study of very low temperatures or the production of the same, and is often confused with cryobiology, the study of the effect of low temperatures on organisms, or the study of cryopreservation. ... Liquid air is air that has been liquified by compression and cooled to very low temperatures. ... Strathisla whisky distillery in Keith, Scotland Distillation is a means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points. ...

Patents

• US727650 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=727650.WKU.&OS=PN/727650&RS=PN/727650) -- May 12, 1903 -- Linde oxygen process
• US728173 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=728173.WKU.&OS=PN/728173&RS=PN/728173) -- May 12, 1903 -- Equiptment for Linde oxygen process
• US795525 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=795525.WKU.&OS=PN/795525&RS=PN/795525) -- July 25, 1905 -- Equiptment for Linde oxygen and nitrogen process

External links

• Linde AG (http://www.linde.com/) (Homepage)
• Information on Carl von Linde (http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/chemach/tpg/cvl.html) at the Chemical Heritage Foundation
• Linde's air liquefaction machine  (http://www.deutsches-museum.de/ausstell/dauer/physik/luft.htm) at the German Museum in Munich [German]

Further reading

• Carl von Linde: "Aus meinem Leben und von meiner Arbeit" (Memoirs: "From my life and about my work"), first published 1916, reprinted by Springer 1984.