Rudolf Hell(2)

principal papers

hardware
Fax and Scanner

software

keyords
Fax, scanner

see also

related subjects

Achievement

Developed technology that led to the fax and the color scanner,

Biography

Hell rebuilt his business in the 1940s after his factory in Berlin was destroyed during World War II.

Hell's landmark invention was a machine for transmitting text that electronically broke up letters into a stream of dots reassembled at the receiving end, in effect the first telefax.

The commercial success of his 1929 "Hell Recorder" allowed him to found his own company.

The technology was less prone to poor reception than telex transmissions, making Hell's machines popular for news agencies, the post office and police departments. In the 1920s, he also invented an image scanning tube for televisions and a radio-beam flight-path finder that is considered a forerunner of aircraft autopilots.

During World War II in Nazi Germany, Hell worked on encoding machines. After the wartime destruction, he resumed business in 1947 and came up with inventions that revolutionized the graphic arts.

An electronically controlled engraver unveiled in 1954 made photo publishing easier for newspapers, and an early version of the color scanner followed in 1963. Hell also was a pioneer of electronic digital typesetting in the 1960s, which ushered out the traditional method using lead.

Hell sold his Kiel-based company in 1981 to German industrial giant Siemens. It was later merged with Linotype AG to become Linotype-Hell AG, which in turn was taken over by German printing press maker Heidelberger Druckmaschinen in 1996.

Chronology

1919-1923

Studies Elektrotechnics in München.

1923-1929

Assistent and co-worker with Professor Max Dieckmann in München.

1925

Invention of Cathode Ray Tube and operation of a television and transmit / send station for tv with Professor Dieckmann on a fair in München, Germany

1927

Promotion PhD, his thesis work dealth with a radio-beam flight-path finder for aircontrol, the fore runner of the autopilot.

1929

Founds a business in Berlin-Neubabelsberg.

1929

Patent for a „Vorrichtung zur elektrischen Übertragung von Schriftzeichen" (HeIl-Schreiber).

1932

Hell demonstrates the electromechanical helical scan printing system.(3)

1949

Rebuilding his business in Kiel after WWII

1950

Hell patents the Klischograph, a process for half-tone photo engravure. GL-Hell (start-stop machine) introduced. Used by the Bundeswehr (German Army) and the Bundesbahn (German Railways).(3)

1954

Elektronic Graphing machine (Klischograph), later also for color pictures.

1964

Development of linotype (printing industry) - Digiset.

1981

Sold his business to Siemens and retired

Honors and Awards

The West German government awarded him its highest honor, the Grand Cross of Merit for Distinguished Service.