Grigore Brişcu

Grigore Brişcu (1884, Bârlad - 1965, Bucharest) was a great Romanian engineer and inventor.

Having a real inclined towards engineering, he joined in 1903 the National School of Bridges and Roads in Bucharest and followed also some courses in Paris. At the same time he joined the Faculty of Law in Iaşi, where he earned a degree in legal sciences.

He published in "Car Magazine" no. 48 of December 15, 1909, p. 8 and no. 53 of 1910, p. 98 the study titled "Helicopters", which showed that the helicopters are "practical, economical, safe operation and will be used widely by the general public". He was the first engineer who in 1909 began experimenting with the cyclic variation of rotor blade pitch in order to ensure horizontal flight and stability and piloting helicopters. Even today, the automatic deviation device is still one of the most important helicopter systems.

Grigore Brişcu stands as one of the most important theorists of mechanical flight. He made an helicopter model he named "air-carriage" which had all the features of a helicopter-like flying-machine: horizontal, vertical and lateral movement and fixed-point landing. It was equipped with two coaxial propellers rotating in contrary directions, whose angle of incidence of the blades may vary during rotation, to gain ascension force and propulsion. The solution was experimented by French aviator Paul Cornu (1881-1963), who built a prototype with an Antoinett engine. The Brişcu rotary engine was patented by the Romanian Office for Inventions (patent no. 2323/2046 of 1912).

Grigore Brişcu's contributions to the study and development of mechanical flight earned him a place among the greatest Romanian inventors of the 20th century.

The first woman-engineer in Europe

Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (November 10, 1887 - November 25, 1973), was the first woman engineer in Europe. Some say that she was the first woman engineer in the world

Elisa Leonida attended primary school in Galaţi and the high school at "Central School for Girls" in Bucharest, obtaining a baccalaureate at "Michael the Brave" high school. Rejected because of prejudice of the School of Bridges and Roads in Bucharest, she entered in 1909 at the Royal Technical Academy in Berlin, Charlottemburg, which she graduated in 1912, becoming the first woman engineer in Europe.

When registering, the Dean tried to persuade to stop bringing the argument of three K: Kirche, Kinder, Küche (church, children, cooking) as essential for women's profile. The press reported the event as a stunt: "A compatriot of ours, Miss Elisa Leonida, instead of studying Letters or Medicine, or worse, the Law, studied engineering at Charlottemburg. The future of women in engineering is great, Miss Elisa Leonida passed with great success last final exam, obtaining the diploma of engineer (newspaper "Minerva", 1912).

After returning to Romania, she was employed as an assistant at the Institute of Geology. Elisa participate in WWI as a member of the Red Cross, helping and leading many hospitals, for which was awarded. In 1918 she married on the front-line with chemist Constantin Zamfirescu, brother of the writer Duiliu Zamfirescu. After the war she resumed work at the Institute, leading several geological analysis laboratories. She participated in major field studies, in particular the identification and analysis of new resources of coal, shale, natural gas, chromium, bauxite and copper, and wrote monographs on these studies. Elisa also taught physics and chemistry.

She retired in 1963, aged 75. Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu was the first woman member of A.G.I.R. (General Association of Romanian Engineers) and of International Association of University Women; since 1993 a street in District 1 of Bucharest bears his name.

Rodrig Goliescu

Rodrig Goliescu (1882–1942) was a Romanian inventor, engineer, and Lieutenant, who built the Avioplan, the first airplane with a tubular fuselage. The model, with a length of 1.2 m was successfully tested in 1909, having a take off angle of 30 degrees. The originality of this aircraft was the shape of the fuselage, designed for minimum drag and acting as a tube fan, similar to the way the modern vertical take off aircraft and helicopters are designed.

This shape reduced drag and increased the efficiency of the propeller. Helped by the Minister of Education, Spiru Haret, who also helped Aurel Vlaicu, in 1909 he went to France to acquire an engine for his aircraft. In Paris he sent a survey "Laws of air dynamics" to the French Academy, study that was published in "La France automobile et aérienne" magazine, on 15 May 1909. Goliescu patented his invention in France (patent no. 402329). In the same year he learned to fly and he built an updated version of his aircraft, this time in full size. The aircraft had a half cylinder fuselage, but still the air from the propeller flowed through as in the first model. He flies with his aircraft for the first time, in November 1909, on Juvisy airfield, near Paris, and he reaches an altitude of about 50 m. It was for the first time to fly an aircraft with a tubed propeller. Between 1932 and 1936 he flight tested his Aviocoleopter, the first aircraft to have a toroidal wing.

After his flights, only in 1932, the Italian engineer Luigi Stipa will build an aircraft with a "barrel fuselage" under the name of Stipa-Caproni but the concept will reach its dedication after the Second World War, being successfully implemented in helicopters like SA-365 Dauphin, RAH-66 Comanche or the new X-35 fighter.

Sources: Wikipedia, Early Aviators.

Dumitru Văsescu

Dumitru Văsescu (1859 - 1909) was a Romanian engineer, professor and inventor.

Born in Iaşi in 1859, Dumitru Văsescu followed school and high school courses in his hometown. Animated by the desire to study engineering, he went to Paris, where he studied at the "École Centrale". In Paris young Văsescu installed a small workshop on Michelet Street, where he tried to build a machine capable of traveling on land or by rail, by its own means. After great efforts, managed to achieve in 1880 a steam car, which became after the tests one of the curiosities of Paris.

Steam car built by Dumitru Văsescu was composed of a multi-tubular boiler heated with coal, with connecting pipes, pressure valves and pressure gauges so disposed, that they can be handled easily. Very characteristic for this car were the rear wheels made of metal alloy with steel spokes and solid rubber tires. Front wheels were smaller and were made of metal, with tires. Dumitru Văsescu's car was fitted with two independent brake systems. Water tank was located under the driver's seat and steering wheel was on the right side of the car.

After graduating in Paris, Dumitru Văsescu returned in Romania in 1906, bringing with him his steam car, which circulated in Bucharest. The car was exhibited at the School of Bridges and Roads, where D. Văsescu teaches as professor. Dumitru Văsescu died on October 29, 1909, in Bucharest.

Dumitru Daponte and the 3D cinema

Dumitru Daponte (1894-1956) was a Romanian engineer, who invented in 1924 the 3D cinema.

After World War I began the boom of film industry. It was the silent film era, black and white, interrupted every 10 minutes to change the film coil. The dialogues were designed separately, on a black background and some film scenes were interrupted to provide the necessary explanation for the action understanding. However, the theaters were full and it was obvious that the new industry had a golden future.

One of the problems that Dumitru Daponte tried to solve is related to playback images in relief (the classic projection has only width and height, not depth, making the screen to be viewed as a sequence of shots). Techniques used in this way were different: the use of glasses with colored lenses, the projection of images on a curved screen etc.

Before Daponte, another Romanian had made a similar attempt: N. Iliescu Brînceni developed a kind of binoculars, which each spectator had to hold to eyes to see on a screen two distinct sets of images superposed to obtain the sensation of relief.

Dumitru Daponte began to work on his invention in 1916, doing research and experimentation in Italy and England, countries where the film enjoyed a great interest. He then made a device for obtaining a stereoscopic effect, based on the idea that the relief conditions must be created since the time of registration of the film. Daponte built a camera with two objectives (the ones by then had one), at approximately 6 cm distance from each other, trying to get the relief effect by projecting simultaneously each pair of captured images. The engineer based his invention by the fact that man sees with two eyes and the perception of relief is due to this double simultaneous reception of the image. His apparatus also contained a device allowing the adjustment of the distance between the two objectives. The two films thus obtained were then entered into a special recording device, such as the two images to be implemented on a single film. His invention was patented in France (Patent no. 592963) and England (Patent no. 222173).

Daponte's invention, introduced in 1924, enjoyed great interest and represented a step forward in addressing this crucial issue for the future of film industry.

Anghel Saligny

Anghel Saligny (April 19, 1854, Şerbăneşti – June 17, 1925, Bucharest) was a great Romanian engineer, forerunner of metal and concrete construction science.

His father, Alfred Saligny, an educator, was a French immigrant to Romania. He started his studies at the boarding school founded by his father in Focşani, then went on to high school, initially also in Focşani and then in Potsdam, Germany. He pursued astronomy at the University in Berlin - as a student of Hermann von Helmholtz, and engineering studies at the Polytechnic Institute in Charlottenburg (1870-1874), and then contributed to the construction of railways in Saxony (Cottbus-Frankfurt). He was a founding member of the Bucharest Polytechnic Society (the precursor to today's Bucharest Polytechnic Institute) - and its president between 1895-1897 and 1910-1911 - and was even appointed a Minister of Public Works. In 1892, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and he served as its president between 1907 and 1910. Anghel Saligny's brother Alfons Oscar Saligny (1853–1903) was a chemist and educator who was also elected a member of the Romanian Academy.

He drew the plans for the Adjud–Târgu Ocna, which included the first mixed-use (railway and highway) bridges in Romania (1881–1882). He was also involved in the construction of numerous other metallic bridges, such as the one at Cosmeşti over the Siret River, which measured 430 m in length. Between 1884 and 1889, Saligny planned and built the first silos in the world made of reinforced concrete, which are preserved today in Constanţa, Brăila and Galaţi. In the port of Constanţa, he created a special pool to allow oil export and two silos for grain export.

Anghel Saligny's most important work was the King Carol I Bridge over the Danube at Cernavodă. Although a public offer had been held by the Romanian government for the erection of a bridge in that location, all projects were found to be subpar and then rejected. Based on his previous experience, Saligny was then selected and given the daunting (at the time) task to draw up the plans for the new structure. Construction work for the bridge started November 26, 1895, in the presence of King Carol I of Romania. The bridge has five openings, with four being 140 m wide, and the central one spanning 190 m. To allow ships to pass under the bridge, it was raised 30 m above the water. The endurance test was performed on the official opening day, when a convoy of locomotives drove on it at 85 km/h. The bridge at Cernavodă measures 4.088 m in length, with 1,662 m over the Danube, and 920 m over the Borcea arm of Danube. At the time, it was the longest bridge in Europe, and the third longest bridge in the world. The structure was famous for its era, competing with Gustave Eiffel's engineering works in France — the Garabit viaduct and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was later renamed Anghel Saligny Bridge, and was not used since 1987, after the construction of a new bridge.

After Wikipedia.