DOBRIVOJE BOŽIĆ - PIONEER OF MODERN RAILWAY AIR BRAKING

BIJELJINA, OCTOBER 12 /SRNA/ - Dobrivoje Božić, a Serbian mechanical engineer, inventor and designer of the first modern air brake for railway vehicles, died on October 13, 1967.

Božić studied at technical colleges in Karlsruhe and Dresden. One of his professors was Rudolf Diesel. After completing his studies in 1911, he returned to Serbia.

He took his first job at a railway workshop in Niš and immediately began research into braking systems for railway vehicles.

His research was temporarily interrupted by World War One, but he resumed it after the war while working in Kraljevo, Belgrade and Zagreb.

In 1922, his compressed-air train braking system was registered with the US Patent Office.

His invention became known as the "Božić brake". Modern railway brakes in use today are essentially further-developed versions of Božić's design.

The transport minister in the first Yugoslavia decided that the brakes should be introduced on domestic railways, beginning with "several hundred freight cars and 700 passenger coaches" ordered from Germany as part of war reparations.

During World War Two, Dobrivoje Božić fled to Canada with his wife Radmila and son Dragan. After leaving for North America, he was declared a traitor and the state authorities confiscated all of his property.

Božić remained in North America until 1964, when he returned to Belgrade.