Franz von Uchatius

Franz von Uchatius (1811–1881) was an Austrian artillery general and inventor. His inventions included both military applications and pioneer work in cinematography.

He invented a motion picture projector in 1853, developing it over the years from 1845[1] from the device then called stroboscope (Simon von Stampfer)[2] and phenakistiscope (Joseph Plateau).[3] This was the first example of projected animation,[4] demonstrated in 1853;[5] it is also described as the combination of the zoetrope with the magic lantern.[6] It was called the kinetoscope,[7] a term later used by Thomas Edison (see kinetoscope). He applied it to lecture on ballistics.[8]

He worked also on a smokeless powder,[9] Uchatius steel was produced industrially, by mixing granulated pig iron with iron oxide.[10]

His balloons,[11][12] were the earliest recorded use of an unmanned aerial vehicle for warfighting occurred on July 1849,[13][14] serving as a balloon carrier (the precursor to the aircraft carrier)[15] in the first offensive use of air power in naval aviation.[16][17][18] Austrian forces besieging Venice attempted to float some 200 incendiary balloons, each carrying a 24- to 30-pound bomb that was to be dropped from the balloon with a time fuse over the besieged city. The balloons were launched mainly from land; however, some were also launched from the Austrian ship SMS Vulcano. The Austrians used smaller pilot balloons to determine the correct fuse settings. At least one bomb fell in the city; however, due to the wind changing after launch, most of the balloons missed their target, and some drifted back over Austrian lines and the launching ship Vulcano.[19][20][21]

The method of strengthening bronze guns by mandrelling, or cold working them from inside with plugs of hardened steel (now known as autofrettage) was invented and patented in 1869 by Samuel B. Dean of the South Boston Iron Company,[22] but it found no use on the American continent. At the time most European countries were adopting steel guns, and Austrian artillery officers also vouched for adopting foreign Krupp guns in 1872, with a Krupp gun being introduced into Austro-Hungarian trials in March 1873.[23] However Austro-Hungary had no steel industry at the time, so Uchatius copied Dean's technology[24] without a license[25] Around 1874, and his superiors decided to adopt the inferior mandrelled bronze artillery, which Uchatius marketed as "steel bronze", in order not to depend on foreign steel. They directed large investments into the state arsenal directed by Uchatius to start the production, but the result turned out to be an utter failure: more expensive, heavier and less durable than steel. Despite state propaganda trumping the success of the "indigenous" technology, the empire still had to buy heavy artillery from Krupp, and the humiliated general committed suicide in 1881; however the country stuck to the technology until the WWI,[26] and therefore, Austrian artillery was inferior even as late as that.[27] The characterization that the M1875 field guns were an utter failure: more expensive, heavier and less durable than steel is disputed by Christian Ortner, who states that a comparative analysis done at the time revealed steel-bronze to have similar properties to that of the ringed steel barrels by Krupp[28] and that after a 2,146 round endurance test, the steel-bronze barrels performed equally to the steel barrels supplied by Krupp.[29] It is further stated by Christian Ortner that the continued use of bronze barrels which could be produced at the Artillery arsenal, allowed Austria-Hungary to modernize cheaply, with a steel-bronze barrel costing a third as much as a Krupp steel barrel.[30] This suggests that the M1875 field guns introduced by Austria-Hungary were not inferior to the Krupp guns, nor yet obsolete at the time of their introduction. As a side note, Spain also adopted "steel bronze" for the same reasons alongside the Krupp guns, but withdrew them after the introduction of the smokeless powder.[31]

Notes

  1. ↑ Film Principles Class Notes. Angelfire.com (10 April 2002). Retrieved on 18 December 2011.
  2. ↑ Adventures in CyberSound: Magic Machines: 1826 – 1875 Archived 3 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Acmi.net.au. Retrieved on 18 December 2011.
  3. ↑ Adventures in CyberSound: von Uchatius, Franz Archived 4 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Acmi.net.au (21 January 1912). Retrieved on 18 December 2011.
  4. ↑ Chronology of Animation: Beginning Archived 20 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Chronomedia: 1850–1854. Terramedia.co.uk (25 August 2008). Retrieved on 18 December 2011.
  6. ↑ An Historical Timeline of Computer Graphics and Animation Archived 29 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Sophia.javeriana.edu.co. Retrieved on 18 December 2011.
  7. ↑ Cartoons – The golden era, The television era. Filmreference.com. Retrieved on 18 December 2011.
  8. ↑ William Everdell, The First Moderns (1997), 13–14.
  9. ↑ Hodgkinson, William Richard Eaton (1911). "Gunpowder" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  10. ↑ The Household Cyclopedia – Metallurgy Archived 12 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Mspong.org. Retrieved on 18 December 2011.
  11. ↑ Important Events in Military Aeronautic History
  12. ↑ WNYC – Books: Survival City: Adventures among the Ruins of Atomic America Archived 30 September 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ Air Power in the Age of Total War, John Buckley
  14. ↑ The Future of Drone Use: Opportunities and Threats from Ethical and Legal Perspectives, Asser Press - Springer, chapter by Alan McKenna, page 355
  15. ↑ Naval Aviation in the Second World War, Philip Kaplan
  16. ↑ Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age, from Antiquity through the First World War, Richard P. Hallion, page 66
  17. ↑ Naval Aviation in the First World War: Its Impact and Influence, R. D. Layman, page 56
  18. ↑ Broken Wings: The Hungarian Air Force, 1918-45, Stephen L. Renner, page 2
  19. ↑ Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918: An Illustrated History of Their Impact, Justin D. Murphy, pages 9–10
  20. ↑ Military Ballooning During the Early Civil War, The Johns Hopkins University Press, F. Stansbury Haydon, pages 18–20
  21. ↑ Mikesh, Robert C. "Japan's World War II balloon bomb attacks on North America." (1973).
  22. ↑ U.S. Patent 90244A
  23. ↑ Ortner, Christian (2007). The Austro-Hungarian Artillery from 1867 to 1918 Technology, Organization and Tactics. Vienna: Stefan Rest. pp. 73–75. ISBN 978-3-902526-13-7.
  24. ↑ "English Mechanics and the World of Science". 1881.
  25. ↑ Van Slyck, J. D. (1879). "New England Manufacturers and Manufactories: Three Hundred and Fifty of the Leading Manufacturers of New England".
  26. ↑ Dredger, John A. (11 August 2017). Tactics and Procurement in the Habsburg Military, 1866-1918: Offensive Spending. Springer. ISBN 9783319576787.
  27. ↑ s:Page:EB1922_-_Volume_30.djvu/274
  28. ↑ Ortner, Christian (2007). The Austro-Hungarian Artillery from 1867 to 1918 Technology, Organization and Tactics. Vienna: Stefan Rest. pp. 73–75. ISBN 978-3-902526-13-7.
  29. ↑ Ortner, Christian (2007). The Austro-Hungarian Artillery from 1867 to 1918 Technology, Organization and Tactics. Vienna: Stefan Rest. pp. 73–75. ISBN 978-3-902526-13-7.
  30. ↑ Ortner, Christian (2007). The Austro-Hungarian Artillery from 1867 to 1918 Technology, Organization and Tactics. Vienna: Stefan Rest. pp. 73–75. ISBN 978-3-902526-13-7.
  31. ↑ "Academia de Artillería".
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