Frederik Karel Theodoor van Iterson (12 March 1877 – 11 December 1957) was a Dutch mechanical engineering professor, who largely developed the typical design of power stationnatural draughtcooling tower, being built from 1918.
The evolution of cooling tower design was visible at the Dutch States Mine Emma, January 1st, 1984.A hyperbolic hyperboloid design, a ruled surface developed from the hyperbolic function; the intrinsic strength in the hyperboloid design is similar to that of an eggshell in the surprisingly small wall thickness
He was born in Roermond.[1] He was the son of Gerrit van Iterson and Aghate Henrietta van Woelderen. He attended the Delft University of Technology (Technische Universiteit Delft or TU Delft). In 1899 he gained a diploma in Engineering (ingenieursdiploma).
He began work into the design of cooling towers. Previously, designs of cooling towers were more-or-less the same as chimneys, in octagonalplanform. On 12 February 1915, the Dutch State Mines decided to build a new concrete cooling tower. This led to his work producing the hyperboloid design of cooling towers at the Staatsmijn Emma in 1918; the towers were demolished on 26 June 1985.[4][5] This design of cooling towers was the world's first, and nearly all cooling towers now follow this hyperboloid design, with concrete structure. On 16 August 1916, he took out the UK patent (108,863) for Improved Construction of Cooling Towers of Reinforced Concrete;[6] the patent was filed on 9 August 1917, and published on 11 April 1918.
^Davids, Karel (2011). "The Strictures of Inheritance: The Dutch Economy in the Nineteenth Century. By Jan Luiten van Zanden and Arthur van Riel, translated by Ian Cressie. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. xvi + 384 pp. Index, notes, bibliography, figures, tables. Cloth, $55.00". Business History Review. 79 (4): 911–913. doi:10.2307/25097138. ISBN978-0-691-11438-5. ISSN0007-6805. JSTOR25097138.
