Kálmán Kandó de Egerfarmos et Sztregova (egerfarmosi és sztregovai Kandó Kálmán; July 10, 1869 – January 13, 1931) was a Hungarian engineer, the inventor of phase converter and a pioneer in the development of AC electric railway traction.
Education and family Kálmán Kandó was born on July 8, 1869, in Pest into an ancient Hungarian noble family. His father was Géza Kandó (1840-1906) and his mother was Irma Gulácsy (1845-1933). He began his grammar school studies at the Budapest Lutheran High School in Sütő street. His parents transferred him from a crowded school to a smaller school, a practice grammar school founded by Mór Kármán. He enrolled in Budapest Technical University where he received a degree in mechanical engineering in 1892. Kandó served as a volunteer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy until 1893. He married Ilona Mária Petronella Posch (1880-1913) in Terézváros on February 2, 1899. Their first child, also named Kálmán was born in the winter of 1899, and their daughter Ilona Sára was born in 1901. On July 9, 1913, his wife died of renal failure in Rozsnyó. His son Kálmán became a military officer. On October 18, 1922, his son Kálmán committed suicide with a service pistol (under unclear circumstances) in a military barrack. His daughter Ilona Mária was married on July 7, 1923, and his grandson, George (also an engineer), was born on June 5, 1924.
Work on railway electrification
France After his military service, he traveled to France in the autumn of 1893, and worked for the Fives-Lille Company as a junior engineer, where he designed and developed early induction motors for locomotives. For the manufacture of induction motors, he developed a completely new design-calculation procedure, which made it possible to produce economical AC traction motors for the Fives Lille Company. Kandó designed more suitable 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors instead of the less effective synchronous electric motors of earlier locomotive designs. Within a year, Kandó was appointed as the chief engineer of the electric motor development at the French firm. András Mechwart (the Ganz and Co.’s managing director at that time) asked him to return to Hungary in 1894 and invited him to work at the electrical engineering department of the Ganz Works.
Ganz Company, Budapest In 1894, Kálmán Kandó developed high-voltage three phase alternating current motors and generators for electric locomotives; he is known as the father of the electric train. His work on railway electrification was done at the Ganz electric works in Budapest. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Evian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898. It was driven by 37 HP asynchronous traction system. In 1907, he moved with his family to Vado Ligure in Italy and obtained employment with Società Italiana Westinghouse. He would later return to Budapest to work at the Ganz factory where he became the managing director.
Italy, Designing the World's first electrified main railway line
In 1897, Kandó designed an electric system and engines for the Italian railways, the electric traction system had great advantages and importance on the very steep railway tracks in the mountainous regions of Italy. Under his leadership, the Ganz factory began work on three-phase haulage for railways. Based on their design, the Italian Ferrovia della Valtellina was electrified in 1902 and became Europe's first electrified main line railway. For the Valtellina line, three-phase power was supplied at 3,000 volts (later increased to 3,600 volts) through two overhead lines, while the running rails supplied the third phase. At junctions, the two overhead lines had to cross and this prevented the use of very high voltages. The three-phase, two wire, system was used on several railways in Northern Italy and became known as "the Italian system". There are now few railways which use this system. In 1907, the Italian government decided for the electrification of another 2000-km railway line with the restriction that the electrical equipment and rolling stock could only be manufactured in Italy. The Westinghouse Company bought up Kandó's patents and paid a license-fee for the electric motors of the Ganz factory. The Westinghouse Company also built a locomotive factory in Vado Ligure, and appointed Kandó to head the new factory. Kandó accepted the invitation and moved to Vado in Italy with his several Hungarian colleagues. Two types of locomotives were developed with his leadership in Italy: a 1500 kw cinquanta and a 2100 kw trenta electric locomotives, from which altogether some 700 units were produced. More than 540 of these were still in service in 1945. In honour of Kandó’s work, he was awarded with Commendatore dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia (Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy), but in 1915 he had to flee through Switzerland, since Italy entered World War I on the Entente side and declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.
Electrification of the London underground lines On the District and Metropolitan Railways, the use of steam locomotives led to smoke-filled stations and carriages that were unpopular with passengers and by the early twentieth century electrification was seen as the way forward. A tender was announced for an electric system, and the largest European and American companies applied to win the tender. However, when the experts of the railways compared the designs from the Ganz Works to the offers of the other large European and American competitors, they concluded that Ganz Works' technology was cheaper and more reliable and described its technology as a "revolution in electric railway traction". In 1901, a metropolitan and district joint committee recommended the Ganz three-phase AC system with overhead wires. Initially, this was unanimously accepted by both parties, until the district found an investor, the American Charles Yerkes, to finance the upgrade. Yerkes raised £1 million (1901 pounds adjusted by inflation are £106 million) and soon had control of the District Railway. However Yerkes favoured the classic DC system, similar to that in use on the City & South London Railway and Central London Railway. The Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade the DC system was adopted.
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