Background
In 1857 he worked in his father"s sugar factory, JJ Langen & Söhne, after an extensive technical training at the Polytechnic institute in Karlsruhe.
In 1857 he worked in his father"s sugar factory, JJ Langen & Söhne, after an extensive technical training at the Polytechnic institute in Karlsruhe.
Langen met Nikolaus August Otto in 1864. Otto was working on improvements to the gas engine invented by Belgian Etienne Lenoir. The technically trained Langen recognized the potential of Otto"s development, and one month after the meeting, founded the first engine factory in the world, NA Otto & Cie.
After this first factory went bankrupt, Langen founded a new company for the construction of gas engines, Gasmotoren-Fabrik, which later became the group Kloeckner-Humboldt-(KHD).
This became today"s AG. Langen invented and applied new methods of production in the KHD factory. In the field of rail transport equipment, Langen was co-owner and engineer of the Cologne Waggonfabrik van der Zypen & Charlier.
He started the Wuppertal monorail, a suspension railway system, in 1894.
Colonial Council.
