Gisbert Kapp

{{Short description|Austrian-English electrical engineer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Use British English|date=April 2018}}

Gisbert Johann Eduard Kapp (2 September 1852, in Mauer, Vienna – 10 August 1922, in Birmingham) was an Austrian-English electrical engineer.

His parents were an Austrian counselor Gisbert Kapp and Luisa Kapp-Young. After finishing his studies in Austria, Kapp moved to England where he was naturalized in 1881. He was awarded a Telford Medal in 1885/6.James Forrest (editor), (1886), Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, p. 177; [https://archive.org/stream/minutesproceedi27britgoog#page/n192/mode/2up archive.org]. In 1904 he was offered the position as the first Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, a post he held until 1919.{{cite book|last=Day|first=Lance|author2=Ian McNeil|title=Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1996|pages=392|isbn=978-0-415-06042-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9HQDGHQzVqAC}} In 1909 he was elected the president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.{{cite web | url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Gisbert_Kapp | title=Gisbert Kapp | publisher=Grace's Guide to British Industrial History | accessdate=22 April 2018 }}{{cite journal|author=Kapp, Gisbert|title=Developments of Electrical Engineering|journal=Nature|date=25 November 1909|volume=82|issue=2091|pages=112–115|doi=10.1038/082112a0|s2cid=3974851|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7czAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA112|doi-access=free}} (Presidential address, Institution of Electrical Engineers, 11 November 1911)

Kapp developed the basis for the calculation and construction of alternating current, dynamos and the transformer. The Electronic, Electrical & Systems Engineering Department at the University of Birmingham is situated in a building named after him.