Per Vilhelm Brüel
Template:Unreviewed Subject of my article is Per Vilhem Brüel, a notable person
Per Vilhelm Brüel (born in Copenhagen, Denmark on March 15, 1915) is a Danish physicist and engineer who pioneered and made fundamental contributions to the development of the physics of sound and vibration. He also formed and founded the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of sound and vibration measurement equipment, systems and solutions, Brüel & Kjær. Brüel was a close friend of Niels Bohr, and Brüel’s traveled from Sweden to Denmark during the Nazi occupation with important documents of Bohr’s work.[1] [2] Brüel is fluent in Danish, German, English, Swedish, and speaks French and Italian.[3] Brüel is a descendant and part of the Brüel branch of the German noble family, the von Brühl family.
Early years
Brüel was born in Copenhagen as the eldest son to his family. Brüel’s father was a forester, a tradition that he intended his son to continue. However, Brüel did not like the idea of becoming a forester, causing a family scandal.
The family lived in the South of Jutland, away from schools and towns. When Brüel got older, he was sent away for “blacksmith” education, which then denoted a practical education in engineering. But he decided to attend university and reallocated to the technical university in Copenhagen. There Brüel pursued aerodynamics, electronics, and acoustics.[4]
Early Career
At the technical university in Copenhagen, Brüel started working on his Ph. D, which today would be equivalent to master of science, in 1932, and finished it in about five months. Brüel’s mentor was P.O. Pedersen, a famous Danish engineer and physicist, and Brüel was handpicked by Pedersen to work with him. Brüel later described Pedersen as brilliant, but that he took credit for Brüel’s and his other students’ work. [5]
In January 1939, Brüel was drafted into the Danish army to do the radio for the military for a year, and it was there he built his first instrument, a battery-operated, constant-percentage bandwidth analyzer.
In the end of 1942, due to German occupation of Denmark, Brüel went to work in Sweden. He there went on to do important work in both Sweden and Finland, including constructing an acoustic lab at Chalmers University.[6]
BRÜEL & KJÆR and the Second World War
In 1942, Brüel started the company Brüel & Kjær with his old friend Kjær. The company experienced immediate growth, and they quickly expanded their sales throughout Scandinavia. However, due to WW2, they soon had shortage of copper. Luckily, Brüel had a good friend who was trying to make problem for the Germans, and informed Brüel about Germans’ thick communication cable from Copenhagen to Berlin that was in the sea, and together they picked it up, destroying Hitler’s communication with his troops for some time.[7]
In 1953, Brüel & Kjær was part of the first European corporation delegation into China, despite warnings from America.
Friendship with Niels Bohr
Brüel was a close friend of Niels Bohr and frequently attended dinners at Bohr’s house, where they would dine and discuss physics.
When Brüel and Bohr both lived in Sweden, Brüel neglected apparent danger and flew to Denmark from time to time, carrying his friend Bohr’s documents of his important work on quantum physics. [8]
Legacy
Brüel was instrumental in the construction of the level recorder, which went to be one of the most successful products for his company Brüel & Kjær. Brüel pioneered engineer within acoustics, and started one of the first companies focused on acoustics.
Brüel & Kjær’s pioneering achievements:[9]
- 1940s – Various precision measurement instruments including radio frequency analyzers and Geiger counters.
- 1950s – Focus on sound and vibration measurements, including development of the logarithmic level recorders, signal generators and frequency analyzers.
- 1960s – Birth of the Brüel & Kjær world class range of measurement microphones, preamplifiers and calibrators. IEC standardized precision sound level meters
were also introduced.
- 1970s – Development of parallel analyzers, including the world’s first analyzer to use digital filters.
- 1980s – Introduction of the first commercially available instrument for sound intensity measurement and the expansion of the range of instruments; for example, dual-channel FFT analyzers.
- 1990s – Multichannel and multi-analysis systems, including acoustical holography array systems.
- 2000s – Surface microphones and new technologies such as TEDS, Dyn-X, REq- X, LAN-XI and much more.
Publications
- Brüel, Per (1951). Sound Insulation and Room Acoustics. London: Chapman & Hall.
References
(1) Mowry, Jackson, and Borring, Ghita, book “The Journey to Greatness: the Story of Brüel & Kjær”, Accoustical Publications, Inc., Bay Village, 2012.
(2) http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:Per_Bruel
(3) http://www.sandv.com/downloads/0808gade.pdf
(4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOJWbidWzmo
(5) http://www.bksv.com/aboutus/aboutbruelandkjaer/history
- ^ Per Brüel: An Interview Conducted by Frederik Nebeker, Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, 18 July 1996.
- ^ Mowry, and Borring (2012). The Journey to Greatness: the Story of Brüel & Kjær”. Accoustical Publications, Inc. ISBN 9780976981633.
- ^ Mowry, and Borring (2012). The Journey to Greatness: the Story of Brüel & Kjær”. Accoustical Publications, Inc. ISBN 9780976981633.
- ^ Per Brüel: An Interview Conducted by Frederik Nebeker, Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, 18 July 1996.
- ^ Per Brüel: An Interview Conducted by Frederik Nebeker, Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, 18 July 1996.
- ^ Per Brüel: An Interview Conducted by Frederik Nebeker, Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, 18 July 1996.
- ^ Per Brüel: An Interview Conducted by Frederik Nebeker, Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, 18 July 1996.
- ^ Per Brüel: An Interview Conducted by Frederik Nebeker, Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, 18 July 1996.
- ^ Svend Gade (2008):. “A Brüel and Kjær History Lesson – Short Version”, Svend Gade, Brüel & Kjær, Nærum, Denmark
