Rudolf E. Hellmund
- Birthdate
- 1879/02/02
- Birthplace
- Gotha, Germany
- Associated organizations
- Westinghouse Electric Corporation
- Fields of study
- Power
- Awards
- IEEE Lamme Medal
Biography
Rudolf Emil Hellmund was born at Gotha, Germany, February 2, 1879. He graduated from the Technical Institute of Ilmenau, Germany, worked 3 years, then continued his studies at Charlottenburg University, Berlin, graduating with honors in 1899 with the degree of electrical engineer. Prior to his studies at Charlottenburg, Hr. Hellmund worked for some time as a designer of electrical machinery and spent one year in the laboratory of the "Land-and-See Kabelwerke", Cologne. Subsequently, he was placed in charge of the test floor and laboratory of the "Maschinenfabrik Esslingen", Stuttgart, Germany.
After being engaged in the development work in Germany, he came to the United States in 1903 and was employed by the Krantz Company of Brooklyn as a designer of switches and switchboards. After doing, other engineering work, he was associated in 1905 with William Stanley at Great Barrington, Mass. During 1905-07, he was in the engineering department of the Western Electric Company at Hawthorne, Ill., in charge of all a-c motor design for the company. Since October 1907, he has been with the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. After being in charge of the development of various kinds of induction motors, he was placed in charge of all designs of d-c and a-c railway motors.
In 1917 he was assigned miscellaneous consulting duties, and in 1921 was appointed engineering supervisor of development. In 1926 he was made chief electrical engineer and in 1933 was given the position of chief engineer of the company. In his engineering experience with the Westinghouse Company, Mr. Hellmund developed new ventilating systems and stator structures of various types of machines, numerous control systems, new armature windings, regenerative systems for railways, control systems and structures for phase-converters and phase-converter locomotives, all of which are in practical use. Mr. Hellmund has presented many papers before the Institute and has been a member of the standards committee since 1930. In the past 2 years he has devoted much attention to the development of air conditioning equipment.
Hellmund was the second individual to be awarded the Lamme Medal of the Institute, a Fellow of the AIEE, and was the 1937 recipient of the Westinghouse Order of Merit. Mr. Hellmund is widely known for his inventive genius, some 300 patents in the United States and other countries having been granted him.
