Poul la Cour

Poul la Cour (13 April 1846 – 24 April 1908) was a Danish scientist, inventor and educationalist. Today la Cour is especially recognized for his early work on wind power, both experimental work on aerodynamics and practical implementation of wind power plants. He worked most of his life at Askov Folk High School where he developed the historic genetic method of teaching the sciences. Early in his life he was a telegraphic inventor working with multiplex telegraphy.

Poul la Cour was born on 13 April 1846 on a farm near Ebeltoft in Denmark. His father was a modern farmer introducing new technology at his farm as the first among neighbours. However la Cour had his gifts in mathematics from his mother. At Latin school in Randers he performed very poorly in languages and had to give up an early wish to become a priest. His brother Jørgen la Cour (1838–98), who knew the possible directions of study in Copenhagen, soon directed his brother into the new field of meteorology.

After having finished his studies in physics and meteorology in Copenhagen in 1869 Poul la Cour travelled in Europe to study practical meteorology. He received his most important inspiration from the Dutch meteorologist de Buijs Ballot, with whom he spent a month. He became convinced that Denmark should set up a planned meteorological institute according to the principles of de Buijs Ballot. During the next five years his life was closely interwoven with the early history of the Danish Meteorological Institute, which was founded in 1872 with him as a Deputy Director.

Telegraphy, the most important technological prerequisite for modern meteorology, soon became his main interest. In June 1874, the year in which Edison invented his quadruplex telegraphy, la Cour invented a telegraphic device based on tuning forks. The idea was to permit a number of telegraphers to send messages on a single wire, each using his own frequency. By using the resonance phenomenon of tuning forks it was possible to split out the messages at the receiving end of the wire. He patented his invention in London on 2 September 1874, but in the United States Alexander Graham Bell, Elisha Gray and others had been working along similar lines, which resulted in protests against his American patent applications. Having too little money to pay lawyers, he gave up his claim in America, and this invention was credited to Elisha Gray. La Cour however maintained that Gray had been working on the invention of the telephone, and only had changed his invention at the instant la Cour's American application was published. He could not help feeling some malicious pleasure when Graham Bell was awarded the telephone patent by applying only a few hours before Gray – as he later wrote in an autobiographical article.

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