Franz Maria Feldhaus


Franz Maria Feldhaus was a German engineer, historian of science, and scientific writer. He was known in the late 1950s as "Germany's most well-known and most prolific writer on the history of technology."

Biography

Born in Neuss as son of a pharmacist, Feldhaus studied electrical engineering without receiving his degree. Later on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 1924 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the RWTH Aachen in recognition of his accomplishments in the field of the history of science. In 1928 he was elected full member of the French "Académie d'Histoire des Sciences."
Late 1890s Feldhaus started to work as inventor and doing odd jobs, while starting to be interested in the history of science. In his Mannheim Workshop for Precision Mechanics he described himself as engineer - this term at that time still unprotected. In 1900 he gave up his practical activities and worked henceforth as historian of science and freelance writer. Feldhaus told Willy Ley that he began writing books on the history of science because, while unemployed, he read books on the subject at the library and believed that he could write better ones.
Feldhaus later attended lectures by Theodor Beck in Darmstadt, who had published on the history of engineering. After his death in 1917 he inherited his estate and research in the field. Over the years Feldhaus built up without any government support an archive on the history of engineering, which became one of the largest private archives in Germany. In Heidelberg and later in Berlin Feldhaus built a private institute, entitled "Quellenforschungen zur Geschichte der Technik und der Naturwissenschaften" in 1909. He also founded the company Historia-Foto GmbH, which might have been the first commercial image archive in Germany. Immediately after the Second World War in 1945-46 Feldhaus was appointed Director of the National Museum in Neustrelitz. The last years of his life he lived in Wilhelmshaven.
In 1959 Feldhaus posthumously received the Rudolf-Diesel-Medaille from the German Institute for Inventions. The poet and novelist Eva Zeller is one of Feldhaus' daughters.

Work

''Lexikon der Erfindungen und Entdeckungen,'' 1904

Feldhaus' first publication was the Lexikon der Erfindungen und Entdeckungen, in 1904, which gave a timeline of inventions and discoveries in the fields of science and technology. This work was designed as reference, and not for educational purposes.

Institute for research in the history of engineering, natural science and industry, 1909/19

In 1909 Feldhaus founded the "Quellenforschungen zur Geschichte der Technik und Naturwissenschaften" Institute In 1919 this institute was turned into the Gmbh "Quellenforschungen zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie," and since 1927 "Geschichte der Technik, e.V.".

''The History of Technical Drawing,'' 1960-63

Feldhaus' "Geschichte des technischen Zeichnens" is translated into English and published in 1960-63 as "The History of Technical Drawing." The work started with the words:
A 1961 review about this work by R. S. Hartenberg in the Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education commented about this opening line, that
Hartenberg further explained, that the book primarily intents to give the interested layman a good survey. After an introduction it starts with a section "Earliest Time, Ancient Time and the Middle Ages," which:
The section on the Technologist's Professions amplified, that development of the underlying concepts, as Hartenberg summarized:
And furthermore:

Selected publications