Josef Schneider
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Josef Schneider is the name of two German electrical engineers, father and son. This article is about both. For a rower of the same name, see Switzerland at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
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[edit] Josef Schneider Senior
Josef Schneider Sr. (May 29, 1840 - March 14, 1927) was the first producer of electricity in Germany and founded the Elektrizitätswerk Horb. He was born in Bühlertann and died at the age of 87 in his hometown Horb am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg.
In 1890 Josef Schneider was granted a patent by royal warrant from the King of Württemberg to become the first German electricity producer. The next year, together with Ernst Werner von Siemens, he made significant improvements to the dynamo. In 1892 Germany saw its first electric light with the help of a steam turbine developed by Josef Schneider Sr. The first electricity was sold to the Hohenzollern royal family. Two years later (1894), a fire destroyed the original generating plant, motivating construction of the first private hydro-electric power plant in Horb am Neckar (Black Forest). By 1912, he and Oskar von Miller were the first to connect eleven cities in the Stuttgart-Munich region to an electric grid using high-voltage lines. In 1922, he assisted in the development of the Voith-Francis Turbine.
[edit] 1970s
In 1975, the family firm, Elektrizitätswerk Horb KG, was incorporated and granted an electricity monopoly for generation, transmission, and sale of electricity to southwestern Baden-Württemberg. It continued to be owned by the Schneider family. In 1980 Josef Schneider Jr. helped to develop the Ossberg-Streamturbine.
[edit] Schneider Power
The Elektrizitätswerk Horb am Neckar KG was sold to EnBW (formerly, Energie Versorgung Schwaben) in 1985. Since 1998 the 4th generation of the Schneider Family has owned Schneider Power Inc., one of Canadas largest Windpower producers, with wind turbines operating in Germany, USA, and Canada.
In 2007, the Schneider family is planning to build the first North American offshore Windpark in the Gulf of Maine, Nova Scotia, Canada.
