Rammler, Erich

SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy, Mining and extraction technology

[br]

b. 9 July 1901 Tirpersdorf, near Oelsnitz, Germany

d. 6 November 1986 Freiberg, Saxony, Germany

[br]

German mining engineer, developer of metallurgic coke from lignite.

[br]

A scholar of the Mining Academy in Freiberg, who in his dissertation dealt with the fineness of coal dust, Rammler started experiments in 1925 relating to firing this material. In the USA this process, based on coal, had turned out to be very effective in large boiler furnaces. Rammler endeavoured to apply the process to lignite and pursued general research work on various thermochemical problems as well as methods of grinding and classifying. As producing power from lignite was of specific interest for the young Soviet Union, with its large demand from its new power stations and its as-yet unexploited lignite deposits, he soon came into contact with the Soviet authorities. In his laboratory in Dresden, which he had bought from the freelance metallurgist Paul Otto Rosin after his emigration and under whom he had been working since he left the Academy, he continued his studies in refining coal and soon gained an international reputation. He opened up means of producing coke from lignite for use in metallurgical processes.

His later work was of utmost importance after the Second World War when several countries in Eastern Europe, especially East Germany with its large lignite deposits, established their own iron and steel industries. Accordingly, the Soviet administration supported his experiments vigorously after he joined Karl Kegel's Institute for Briquetting in Freiberg in 1945. Through his numerous books and articles, he became the internationally leading expert on refining lignite and Kegel's successor as head of the Institute and Professor at the Bergakademie. Six years later, he produced for the first time high-temperature coke from lignite low in ash and sulphur for smelting in low-shaft furnaces. Rammler was widely honoured and contributed decisively to the industrial development of his country; he demonstrated new technological processes when, under austere conditions, economical and ecological considerations were neglected.

[br]

Bibliography

Rammler, whose list of publications comprises more than 600 titles on various matters of his main scientific concern, also was the co-author (with E.Wächtler) of two articles on the development of briquetting brown coal in Germany, both published in 1985, Freiberger Forschungshefte, D 163 and D 169, Leipzig.

Further Reading

E.Wächtler, W.Mühlfriedel and W.Michel, 1976, Erich Rammler, Leipzig, (substantial biography, although packed with communist propaganda).

M.Rasch, 1989, "Paul Rosin—Ingenieur, Hochschullehrer und Rationalisierungsfachmann". Technikgeschichte 56:101–32 (describes the framework within which Rammler's primary research developed).

WK