Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe - Richtungsweiser ohne Spuren

Abstract

"In about 1900, Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe (1872-1931) attracted great attention with his plans to travel to the North Pole by submarine. Among the problems entailed by this project was the fact that a magnetic compass in a steel casing would fail to function properly. Experiments were carried out with the aim of developing a gyroscope, an object that was also of interest to the German Navy. The initial model was rejected by the Navy in 1904, but nevertheless led to a comprehensive fundamental patent. As recent research has shown, Anschütz-Kaempfe and his firm succeeded in presenting a meridian (i.e. geographically northward-pointing) gyrocompass in 1908, having competed closely with companies such as Siemens and Hartmann & Braun. The device was adopted by the German Navy and soon by the navies of other countries as well. Anschütz-Kempfe worked experimentally for the most part, not possessing the ability to formulate the functional principles he discovered with the means of analytical mechanics. What he did possess, however, was organisational talent, with which he was able to motivate his highly competent employees. An essential factor in the marketing of such devices was the patent as a form of initial publication. In order to verbalise techniques that were linked with structural components and relatively quickly ascertainable within the framework of experiments, it was necessary to have at one's disposal both a skilful patent lawyer as well as someone who mastered the methods of the young science of engineering. For the latter aspect, the inventor was fortunate in having an internationally recognised scientist on his staff - Max Schuler - who defined fundamental functional conditions for gyrocompasses (e.g. the so-called 'Schuler tuning'). Expert appraisers played a major role in defending the patents. In a legal conflict with the Sperry Company of America in 1914, for example, Albert Einstein was called upon to provide his expertise, leading to his further collaboration with Anschütz-Kaempfe. With the temporary, project-bound employment of top-ranking scientists for the conception of the spherical compass in the 1920s, this unconventional inventor anticipated high-tech research and development in the style of 'lean management.'" (author's abstract)