[[File:Franz Xaver Riepl Litho.jpg|thumb|Franz Xaver Riepl, lithograph by [[Josef Kriehuber]] (1855)]] '''Franz Xaver Riepl''' (29 November 1790 – 25 April 1857) was an Austrian geologist, [[railway pioneer]] and metallurgical specialist.
==Life== Riepl was born in [[Graz]], [[Duchy of Styria|Styria]] where his father worked as a building inspector. He attended the mining college in [[Banská Štiavnica|Schemnitz]] (present-day Banská Štiavnica, [[Slovakia]]) and, back in Graz, worked with the famous geologist [[Friedrich Mohs]] (1773–1839) at the [[Graz University of Technology|Joanneum]] technical college. From 1816 he was employed at the [[Fürstenberg (princely family)|Fürstenberg]] iron mines in [[Nižbor]] (Nischburg), [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]] and undertook extended study tours through [[Kingdom of Saxony|Saxony]], [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavaria]], Prussian [[Province of Silesia|Silesia]], and [[Margraviate of Moravia|Moravia]].
Between 1819 and 1835 he worked as a professor at the [[TU Wien|Imperial and Royal Polytechnic Institute]] in [[Vienna]]. During the 1820s, Riepl again made study trips through the [[Inner Austria]]n and [[Kingdom of Illyria (1816–49)|Illyrian]] provinces of the Austrian monarchy; it was from him that the initiative came to quarry the Styrian [[Erzberg mine|Erzberg]] using open cast mining. He also assisted the Austrian State Chancellor Prince [[Klemens von Metternich]] establishing iron works on his estates in [[Plasy]], Bohemia. With the support of the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Olomouc|Olomouc]] Cardinal [[Archduke Rudolf of Austria (1788–1831)|Archduke Rudolf of Austria]], he also worked as a surveyor at the [[Frýdlant nad Ostravicí|Friedland]] (Frýdlant) mines in Moravia. In 1829 he gave the impulse for building the important [[Vítkovice (Ostrava)|Witkowitz]] iron works nearby, where he introduced the English [[puddling (metallurgy)|puddling]] process. [[File:Kaiser Ferdinands Nordbahn 1849.jpg|thumb|left|Nordbahn railway lines (red) in 1849]] As early as 1828 Riepl had developed plans for a railway network across the whole [[Austrian Empire]], including the later [[Southern Railway (Austria)|Southern Railway]] as well as a railway link from the [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria|Kingdom of Galicia]] via Vienna to the [[Port of Trieste]]. In 1830 he presented detailed route diagrams of a railway line running from Vienna to the Witkowitz iron works and further eastwards to the [[Wieliczka Salt Mine]] near [[Kraków]]. In the following years, he travelled to England several times to study the construction of railway lines. Receiving large funds by [[Salomon Mayer von Rothschild]], his plans were finalised: backed by Chancellor Metternich and the Bohemian "stadtholder" [[Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky]], Riepl and Rothschild received the commission for the building of the [[Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway]] line (''[[North railway (Austria)|Nordbahn]]'') from Vienna to [[Bochnia]]. Construction began in 1937, the line up to [[Bohumín]] (Oderberg) in [[Austrian Silesia]] was completed in 1847. One year later, a connection to the Prussian [[Upper Silesian Railway]]; a transport link to Kraków was provided by the [[Eastern National Railway (Austria)|Eastern National Railway]] from 1856.
Riepl died in Vienna, aged 66. He was buried in the [[Hinterbrühl]] cemetery in [[Lower Austria]]. In 1904, the street of Rieplstrasse in Vienna's [[Favoriten]] district was named after him.
== See also == * [[List of railway pioneers]]
== External links == *[http://www.literature.at/webinterface/library/ALO-BOOK_V01?objid=11775&page=145&zoom=5&ocr= Riepl, Franz X.], in [[Constant von Wurzbach]], ''[[Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich]]'', 26. Band, Vienna 1874, * {{Austriaforum|Biographien/Riepl%2C_Franz_Xaver}} * [http://www.oberegger2.org/altoesterreich/kap4.htm Prof. Riepl im Kontext der "österr. Eisenbahngeschichte"]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Riepl, Franz Xaver}} [[Category:1790 births]] [[Category:1847 deaths]] [[Category:Engineers from Graz]] [[Category:Scientists from Graz]] [[Category:19th-century Austrian geologists]] [[Category:Austrian railway mechanical engineers]] [[Category:Geologists from the Austrian Empire]] [[Category:Engineers from the Austrian Empire]] [[Category:Academic staff of TU Wien]]