Gisbert Kapp

Gisbert Johann Eduard Kapp (2 September 1852, in Mauer, Vienna – 10 August 1922, in Birmingham) was an Austrian-English electrical engineer.

His parents were an Austrian counselor Gisbert Kapp and Luisa Kapp-Young. After finishing his studies in Austria, Kapp moved to England where he was naturalized in 1881. He was awarded a Telford Medal in 1885/6.[1] In 1904 he was offered the position as the first Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, a post he held until 1919.[2] In 1909 he was elected the president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.[3][4]

Kapp developed the basis for the calculation and construction of alternating current, dynamos and the transformer. The Electronic, Electrical & Systems Engineering Department at the University of Birmingham is situated in a building named after him.

  1. ^ James Forrest (editor), (1886), Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, p. 177; archive.org.
  2. ^ Day, Lance; Ian McNeil (1996). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Taylor & Francis. p. 392. ISBN 978-0-415-06042-4.
  3. ^ "Gisbert Kapp". Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  4. ^ Kapp, Gisbert (25 November 1909). "Developments of Electrical Engineering". Nature. 82 (2091): 112–115. doi:10.1038/082112a0. S2CID 3974851. (Presidential address, Institution of Electrical Engineers, 11 November 1911)