Alfred Büchi

Alfred Büchi (July 11, 1879 – October 27, 1959) was a Swiss engineer and inventor. He was best known as the inventor of turbocharging. Alfred J. Büchi was born July 11, 1879 in Winterthur, Switzerland, growing up there and in Ludwigshafen. He was the son of Johann Büchi, a chief executive at Swiss industrial engineering and manufacturing firm Sulzer. Alfred was well-positioned to pursue a similar field and would eventually achieve fame as a result of his inventions. In 1899 he enrolled as a machine engineering student at Federal Polytechnic Institute (ETH) in Zürich, receiving a degree in 1903. From there he practised engineering in Belgium and England before returning to Switzerland (Wetzikon) in 1908.

During his early years outside Switzerland, Büchi became fascinated with the challenge of improving combustion engine efficiency relating to exhaust heat loss.

Büchi's patent - No. 204630 received from the Imperial Patent Office of the German Reich on November 16, 1905 - describes a "highly supercharged compound engine" with a solution to capture such heat using an "axial compressor, radial piston engine and axial turbine on a common shaft".

The idea was simple, however the materials and fuels required for it to function were not yet available. While a later patent (1925) describing "pulse operation for low-pressure supercharging" is considered his landmark, due to Büchi's invention the year 1905 is thus acknowledged as the birth of the turbocharging era. Büchi’s principles from 1905 remain the same for turbocharging today. Power and efficiency are improved "by forcing additional air into the cylinders, with the heat from the exhaust gas used to drive the turbine".

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