Tsunekichi Takuma

Inventor of the Takuma boiler. Born in Higashisono Village, Tohaku District, Tottori Prefecture (now Hokuei Town) as the son of a paperhanger. From the age of 15, he worked as a doctor's clerk in Kyoto, and as an employee of a trading company in Kobe, before working for a lumber dealer in Kobe at the age of 27. At the age of 32, he took over the business when the company was on the brink of bankruptcy. In Wakayama, where he purchased lumber, he met sawmill inventor Yasaburo Okamoto, and aspired to develop a boiler for sawmills. He began development in 1911 (Meiji 44), and inspired by the circulation of blood, he succeeded in prototyping a water-tube boiler the following year in 1912, and obtained a patent for the Takuma boiler in 1913 (Taisho 2). The key point was to improve the circulation of boiler water by using a receiver and downcomer, speeding up evaporation and increasing efficiency. His boiler won the highest gold medal at the Second Inventions Exposition in 1914 and gradually became famous, but due to the recession after World War I, his patent rights and all of his business were transferred to the Steam Locomotive Manufacturing Company (which was absorbed into Kawasaki Heavy Industries in 1972) in 1921, and he continued to work on improvements as a consultant for the company. As a result, his boiler was recognized as the best in the world at the International Congress of Industry held in Tokyo in 1929 (Showa 4). He went on to invent a small "Tsunekichi Boiler" and founded the Takuma Boiler Manufacturing Company (now Takuma) in 1938 to manufacture and sell it.

[Toshio Yamazaki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

タクマ式ボイラーの発明者。鳥取県東伯郡東園(ひがしその)村（現、北栄(ほくえい)町）に表具師の子として生まれる。15歳のときから京都の医者の書生、神戸(こうべ)の貿易会社社員などを経て、27歳からは神戸の材木商に勤めた。32歳のとき、この会社が破産に瀕(ひん)したためこの事業を受け継いだ。材木の仕入れ先の和歌山で製材機の発明家岡本弥三郎と知り合い、製材機用ボイラーの開発を志した。1911年（明治44）開発に着手し、血液の循環にヒントを得て、翌1912年水管ボイラーの試作に成功し、1913年（大正2）にはタクマ式汽罐(きかん)の特許を得た。その要点は、受水器と降水管を使ってボイラー水の循環を良好にし、蒸発を早めて効率を大きくするところにあった。彼のボイラーは1914年の第2回発明博覧会で最高金賞を受けてからしだいに有名になったが、第一次世界大戦後の不況で、彼の特許権と事業のいっさいは1921年に汽車製造会社（1972年川崎重工業に吸収合併）に譲られ、彼はそこの嘱託となって改良を続けた。その結果、1929年（昭和4）東京で開かれた万国工業会議で彼のボイラーは世界最高のものと評価されるに至った。さらに小型の「つねきちボイラー」を発明し、その製作販売のため、1938年田熊汽罐製造会社（現、タクマ）を創立した。

［山崎俊雄］

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