Kaplan, Viktor (1876–1934)

Austrian engineer who invented a water turbine with adjustable rotor blades. In the machine, patented 1920, the rotor was on a vertical shaft and could be adjusted to suit any rate of flow of water.

Horizontal Kaplan turbines are used at the installation on the estuary of the River Rance in France, the world's first tidal power station, which opened 1966.

Kaplan was born in Murz and educated in Vienna at the Technische Hochschule. After working in industry, he became professor at the Technische Hochschule in Brunn 1903.

Kaplan published his first paper on turbines in 1908, and set up a propeller turbine for the lowest possible fall of water. In 1913 the first prototype of the turbine was completed.