LOBE, Feliks
* 14. 10. 1894, Ljubljana, Slovenia
† 9. 5. 1970, Ljubljana, Slovenia
mechanical engineer
As a pupil, L. had already been engaged in inventions, and as a secondary school graduate registered his first patent. After his graduation from the gymnasium in Novo mesto in 1914, he began studying mechanical engineering in Prague, but had to return in 1915, and could only resume his study after the war in Vienna, receiving the title bachelor of science in mechanical engineering in 1922.
From 1922 to 1927, he was the chief constructor in the Vienna machine factory Warchalowski-Eissler, and afterwards worked for a year in a company of the national railway. He planned and constructed steam, electric, and diesel locomotives, as well as tramcars. He received numerous patents for his solutions of the suspension, drive, and breaks of electric locomotives and the distribution of mass in internal combustion engines.
L. left Vienna, as a manager of a factory of wagons, machines, and engines, for Slavonski Brod. In 1930, a known electrotechnician, Milan →Vidmar, brought him to the University of Ljubljana, where he became an associate professor of electrotechnics and foundations of mechanical engineering. Here, in 1933, he gave the initiative to establish a hydrotechnical, calorific, and technological laboratory, and a building of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
L. still remained active as an inventor, particularly in the field of sprocket wheel systems, for which he also received patents. In 1949, he became a full member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, in 1958/59, he was the dean of the Faculty of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in Ljubljana, and the following year the sub-dean of this faculty. Even after his early retirement, he continued to teach at the College of Technology, but fell seriously ill in 1965.
