1. The History of the Solenoid Valve: ASCO, in 1888 started out manufacturing elevator, compressor and generator controls. In 1910 ASCO became the first company to develop and manufacture a new electrically operated control device known as the solenoid valve. ASCO continued its development activity in these product areas and today manufactures products that are designed to control the flow of air, gas, water, oil and steam – practically every kind of liquid or gaseous substance. Source: ASCO VALVE COMPANY HISTORY
2. The History of Pressure Measurement: 1648 Blaise Pascal, French philosopher physicist and mathematician, heard about the experiments of Torricelli and was searching for the reasons of Galileo’s and Torricelli’s findings. He came to the conviction that the force, which keeps the column at 760 mm, is the weight of the air above. Thus, on a mountain, the force must be reduced by the weight of the air between the valley and the mountain. He predicted that the height of the column would decrease which he proved with his experiments at the mountain Puy de Dome in central France. From the decrease he could calculate the weight of the air. Pascal also formulated that this force, he called it “pressure”, is acting uniformly in all directions. Source: Sensorland.com
3. Siemens: Beginnings and initial expansion (1847–1865) Werner Siemens – known as Werner von Siemens from 1888 when he was raised to the nobility – was born in 1816 in Lenthe, near Hanover, Germany. As his family lacked the resources to pay for a university education, he joined the Prussian army in 1835, where he spent three years studying mathematics, physics, chemistry and ballistics at the Artillery and Engineering Academy in Berlin. Werner von Siemens was awarded his first Prussian patent in 1842 – for an electrolytic method of gold and silver plating. His younger brother Wilhelm later marketed this invention successfully in Britain. In 1846, Werner von Siemens hit upon an idea for improving the Wheatstone telegraph. Using just simple means – cigar boxes, tinplate, pieces of iron, and some insulated copper wire – he designed his own pointer telegraph. He entrusted the apparatus‘ construction to a mechanical engineer, Johann Georg Halske, who was won over by its simplicity and reliability.
4. During the 17th century, German physicist and engineer Otto von Guericke experimented with and improved air compressors. In 1650, Guericke invented the first air pump. It could produce a partial vacuum and Guericke used it to study the phenomenon of vacuum and the role of air in combustion and respiration. Otto von Guericke was also the inventor of the nothing we now call a vacuum. To be more precise, Otto von Guericke proved that a vacuum could exist, before Guericke people did not believe that a vacuum was possible. Creating a vacuum was essential for all kinds of further research into electronics and other innovations. Besides being an inventor and a philosopher, Otto von Guericke served as the mayor or Burgermeister of Magdeburg, Germany from 1646 to 1676. Source: About.com/Invertors
5. Swiss pioneers were the first to realize functioning vapour recompression plants. The first European heat pumps were realized in Switzerland. To date it remains one of the heat pump champions. Its pioneering role in the development of vertical borehole heat ex-changers, sewage heat recovery, oil free piston compressors and turbo compressors is well known. The biggest heat pump ever built comes from Switzerland. Source: Zogg_Engineering
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