Križík, František

Křižík, František 

Born July 8, 1847, in Planice, Bohemia; died Jan. 22, 1941, in Prague. Czech electrical engineer. Son of a shoemaker.

Křižík studied at the Prague Polytechnic Institute for two years (until 1869) and at the same time worked as a technician in a shop manufacturing telegraph apparatus. In 1870 he began to work for a railroad. In 1873 he proposed a new railroad signaling and interlocking system, which was put into service in 1882 in the St. Gotthard Tunnel (Switzerland). In 1880 he invented an electric differential arc lamp (patented in 1882). In 1881, Křižík founded the first Czech electrotechnical factory, in Plzen (Pilsen) and, two years later, a second factory in Prague. He built the first electric power plant in Czechoslovakia (1888), as well as the first electrified railroad (1903) and the first experimental streetcar line in Prague (1891).

WORKS

Paměti. Praha, 1952.

REFERENCE

Tsverava, G. K. “Chekhoslovatskaia elektrotekhnika v 19 v.” Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki, 1957, no. 4.