{{Short description|Austrian-English electrical engineer (1852–1922)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Use British English|date=April 2018}} {{infobox engineer |birth_date={{birth date|1851|09|02|df=y}} |birth_place=Mauer, Austria |death_date={{death date and age|1922|08|10|1852|09|02|df=y}} |death_place=Birmingham, UK |alma_mater=Federal Polytechnic Zurich }} '''Gisbert Johann Eduard Kapp''' (2 September 1852 – 10 August 1922) was an Austrian-English electrical engineer.
His parents were the Austrian counselor Gisbert Sebastian Kapp (1816-1857) and Luisa Kapp-Young. After finishing school in Vienna, Austria and Prague, Czechia, Kapp studied mechanical engineering at the then Federal Polytechnic Zurich, which is now know under the name ETH Zürich. He gained practical experience as a ship's engineer and in a machine factory in Augsburg, Germany, for a year each, before serving for two years in the Austrian navy, based in the then Austrian Trieste. He came to England in 1875, where he took up work in the industry, desinging and selling large pumps across Europe.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Tucker |first=D.G. |date=February 1973 |title=Gisbert Kapp, First Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham |url=https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-eps/eece/brochures/gisbert-kapp-booklet.pdf |access-date=24 May 2026}}</ref> The International Exposition of Electricity in Paris 1881 brought him in contact with Electrical Engineering, the science he dedicated his future career to. He was naturalised in Britain the same year.
He was awarded a Telford Medal in 1885/6.<ref>James Forrest (editor), (1886), ''Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers'', p. 177; [https://archive.org/stream/minutesproceedi27britgoog#page/n192/mode/2up archive.org].</ref> In 1904 he was offered the position as the first Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, a post he held until 1919.<ref>{{cite book|last=Day|first=Lance|author2=Ian McNeil|title=Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1996|pages=392|isbn=978-0-415-06042-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9HQDGHQzVqAC}}</ref><ref name="aboutus">{{Cite web |title=About us |url=https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/about/college-of-engineering-and-physical-sciences/electronic-electrical-systems-engineering/about-us |access-date=24 May 2026 |website=University of Birmingham |language=en |archive-date=11 March 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260311130328/https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/about/college-of-engineering-and-physical-sciences/electronic-electrical-systems-engineering/about-us |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1909 he was elected the president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Gisbert_Kapp | title=Gisbert Kapp | publisher=Grace's Guide to British Industrial History | accessdate=22 April 2018 | archive-date=29 December 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229172253/https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Gisbert_Kapp | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Kapp, Gisbert|title=Developments of Electrical Engineering|journal=Nature|date=25 November 1909|volume=82|issue=2091|pages=112–115|doi=10.1038/082112a0|s2cid=3974851|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7czAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA112|doi-access=free |bibcode=1909Natur..82..112. }} (Presidential address, Institution of Electrical Engineers, 11 November 1911)</ref>
Kapp developed the basis for the calculation and construction of alternating current, dynamos and the transformer. The ''Electronic, Electrical & Systems Engineering Department'' at the University of Birmingham was situated in a building named after him in November 1972<ref name=":0" /> until 2020, when the department moved to the new engineering building near the west gate.<ref name="aboutus" />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapp, Gisbert}} Category:1852 births Category:1922 deaths Category:British electrical engineers Category:British people of Austrian descent Category:People from Liesing Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United Kingdom
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