Viktor Kaplan
Kaplan, Viktor
Born Nov. 27, 1876, in Murzzuschlag; died Aug. 23, 1934, in Unterach. Austrian engineer and hydraulicturbine designer.
In 1900, Kaplan began working in a German higher technical school in Brno; he became a professor there in 1913. Using models in the school’s laboratory, he investigated the operation of the hydraulic turbine. Through his attempts to increase their speed, Kaplan became one of the first persons to undertake the design (in 1912) of an axial-flow reactive turbine with rotary blades, for which he obtained a patent in 1920.