Gustaf Dalén
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Nils Gustaf Dalén |
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| Born | November 30, 1869 Stenstorp, Västergötland, Sweden |
|---|---|
| Died | December 9, 1937 Lidingo, Stockholm, Sweden |
| Residence |  Sweden |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Field | Physicist |
| Institution | AGA |
| Alma mater | Chalmers University of Technology |
| Known for | Sun valve |
| Notable prizes |  Nobel Prize in Physics (1912) |
Nils Gustaf Dalén (November 30, 1869 – December 9, 1937) was a Swedish inventor and industrialist, the founder of AGA, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1912 for his work on automatic gas regulator controlled buoys.
[edit] Biography
Dalén was born in Stenstorp, in present day Falköping municipality, and earned his Master's degree and a Doctorate at the Chalmers University of Technology. Daléns most important and most well known invention is the sun valve which made the AGA lighthouse possible. Dalén was blinded in a gas explosion accident earlier in the same year as he was awarded the Nobel Prize (1912). This has led to speculation that he was selected partly out of sympathy.
Despite his blindness, Dalén remained in control of AGA until 1937.
The award of the Nobel Prize to Dalén has sometimes been viewed with controversy, but was actually closer to the general terms of Nobel's will than most awards in physics. Dalén made developments in acetylene chemistry to get a very bright light, developed safe storage methods, and then engineered a special valve that was controlled by the sun, so that the resulting buoys would only operate at night, prolonging their life to about a year. To a rugged coastal area like Scandinavia, these mass-produced long-lived minimal maintenance buoys were a significant boon to safety and livelihood.
Dalén married Elma Persson in 1901, they had two sons and two daughters. [1]
He was inventor of a sun valve, which operated as a switch to turn on a light during the hours of darkness. This invention was used extensively for buoys and lighthouses, almost immediately. Another invention of his was Agamassan, a substrate used to transport acetylene. He was chief engineer at Gas Accumulator Company (manufacturer and distributor of acetylene), and later rose into a management position. An accidental explosion blinded him in 1912.
- Brother: Albin (ophthalmologist)
- Wife: Elma Persson (m. 1901, two sons, two daughters)
- Son: Gunnar (engineer)
- Son: Anders (physician)
- University: MA, Chalmers University of Technology
- University: PhD, Chalmers University of Technology
- Nobel Prize for Physics 1912
- Suffered blindness
- Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences
- Academy of Science and Engineering
- Morehead Medal
[edit] Notes
[edit] References and further reading
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1901: Röntgen 1902: Lorentz, Zeeman 1903: Becquerel, P.Curie, M.Curie 1904: Rayleigh 1905: Lenard 1906: Thomson 1907: Michelson 1908: Lippmann 1909: Marconi, Braun 1910: van der Waals 1911: Wien 1912: Dalén 1913: Kamerlingh Onnes 1914: von Laue 1915: W.L.Bragg, W.H.Bragg 1917: Barkla 1918: Planck 1919: Stark 1920: Guillaume 1921: Einstein 1922: N.Bohr 1923: Millikan 1924: Siegbahn 1925: Franck, Hertz |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dalén, Gustaf |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 30, 1869 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stenstorp, Västergötland, Sweden |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 9, 1937 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Lidingo, Stockholm, Sweden |
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