engineering

Richard Fiedler

Richard Fiedler is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard Fiedler rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Fiedler was a German scientist who invented the modern flamethrower, a weapon that projects a stream of nitrogen. He submitted evaluation models of his Flammenwerfer to the German Army (German Empire) in 1901.

Key takeaways

Richard Fiedler belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard Fiedler to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Fiedler from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Fiedler was a German scientist who invented the modern flamethrower, a weapon that projects a stream of nitrogen. He submitted evaluation models of his Flammenwerfer to the German Army (German Empire) in 1901. The most significant model submitted was a man-portable device, consisting of a vertical single cylinder 4 feet (1.2 m) long, horizontally divided in two, with pressurized gas in the lower section and flammable oil in the upper section. On depressing a lever the propellant gas forced the flammable oil into and through a rubber tube and over a simple igniting wick device in a steel nozzle. The weapon projected a jet of fire and enormous clouds of smoke some 20 yards (18 m). It was a single-shot weapon - for burst firing, a new igniter section was attached each time it was used for battle or other uses of any sorts. It was first used on the western front both by the Central Powers and the Entente. It was used extensively in World War II by both Allied and Axis troops.

Biography Prior to the First World War, Fiedler studied engineering and worked as an engineer in Berlin. The development of the flame thrower resulted from his focus on nozzles for spraying liquids. Fiedler originally performed a trick called "Brennender See" (Burning Lake) at festivals in Berlin-Weißensee. The trick entailed pouring a flammable liquid onto a water surface and setting it on fire. A first flamethrower patent was granted in 1901, and Fiedler turned to the German army who granted him financial support for continuing development of the device. In 1905, he presented his flamethrower to the Preußisches Ingenieurs-Komitee (Prussian engineering committee) at the Garde-Pionier-Bataillon in Berlin and received suggestions for improving the device. Independently of Fiedler, Bernhard Reddemann (1870–1938) had also begun developing flamethrowers, prompted by reports of kerosene pumps that the Japanese had used against bunkers in the siege of Port Arthur. Fiedler and Reddemann met for the first time in 1908 and cooperated at the onset of the First World War on further developing the flamethrower. Reddemann advanced to the rank of major of the Pioniere (pioneers), was chief of the firefighters of Breslau and Leipzig and was the author of monographs on firefighting. After the war, he wrote a book on the history of the flamethrower. Fiedler founded the Fiedler Flammenapparate G.m.b.H. (Fiedler Flame Devices, limited liability company), which he managed as director until 1917. His successors were to be Hauptmann (Captain) Arthur von Steynitz, Kaufmann (merchant) Arthur Bock and Kaufmann (merchant) Kurt Mayen. Fiedler was granted 11 German patents on flamethrowers, from 1901 until 1918, the last one being for an airplane flamethrower.

References

Further reading Benhard Reddemann: Geschichte der deutschen Flammenwerfer-Truppe. Verein ehem. Angehöriger d. Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiments, Berlin, ca. 1933 (53 pages). Thomas Wictor: German Flamethrower Pioneers of World War I. Schiffer Publ., 2007, ISBN 978-0764327728.

External links Thomas Wictor Flammenwerfer ! The death head pioneers

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Fiedler

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Fiedler claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard Fiedler before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard Fiedler ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard Fiedler

In research: Richard Fiedler appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard Fiedler in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard Fiedler is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 19th-century births, 20th-century Freikorps personnel, 20th-century German inventors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Fiedler outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Richard Fiedler in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Fiedler means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard Fiedler out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Fiedler in simple terms?

Why does Richard Fiedler matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard Fiedler?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard Fiedler.