Swedish engineer, b. 1869, d. 1937. Dalén originally attended a school of agriculture and was to become a dairy farmer, but it was recommended to him that he pursue a technical education. He attended the Chalmers Institute at Gothenburg and graduated as an engineer in 1896. He then travelled to Switzerland for a year of study under Professor Stodola at the Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum.
Once back home in Sweden, he worked for several companies, including Swedish Carbide and Acetylene, Ltd., and Swedish Gas Accumulator Ltd., as a consulting engineer and managing director, respectively.
Dalén's early inventions had a great deal to do with agriculture (such as threshing machines and milking devices). Later, he worked on automatic beacons for lighthouses, that would light at dusk and extinguish at dawn. He made several advances in this area that made it safer and easier for people to use (as they were working with dangerous gases).
Dalén lost his eyesight in 1912 as the result of an unexpected explosion. However, he continued his work and was awarded the contract to light the Panama Canal. He continued other scientific studies as well, and worked on a stove that was more fuel-efficient.
Nils Dalén was awarded the 1912 Nobel Prize in physics
"for his invention of automatic regulators for use in
conjunction with gas accumulators for illuminating
lighthouses and buoys"
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Researched on www.nobel.se