Herman John Bernhard Scharnberg
Herman John Bernhard Scharnberg (c1881-1940)
1941 Obituary [1]
HERMAN JOHN BERNHARD SCHARNBERG was for the greater part of his career, principally associated with the sugar industry. At the time of his death, which occurred in his fifty-ninth year, on 22nd October 1940, he was mill superintendent of the United States Sugar Corporation at Clewiston, Florida, and was responsible for the design and construction of a mill of completely new design, known as the Farrell—Scharnberg mill, which was installed in preparation for the 1940-1 grinding season.
He was born in Germany, but after serving his apprenticeship from 1896 to 1900 at the Blohm and Voss shipyards in Hamburg and with the Worman Steamship Company, he went to America. During 1905 and 1906 he served as third and second assistant engineer on ships of the United Fruit Company and Messrs. Merrit and Chapman Wrecking Company. In 1907 he was appointed assistant chief engineer to Messrs. Butler Brothers, of Jersey City, and from 1909 to 1912 he held a similar position with the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley R.R. Company at Scranton, Pennsylvania.
From 1913 to 1914, he was chief engineer of the Rio de Janeiro Tramway, Light and Power Company, where he was responsible for the installation of a 5,000 kW. Westinghouse turbo-generator, and for the conversion of the boilers to burn oil instead of coal. He was field engineer with charge of equipment in connection with foreign installations for the Westinghouse Machine and Electric Company, until 1918, when he joined the Haitian-American Corporation at Port au Prince as chief electrical and mechanical engineer. There he was engaged on the rebuilding of the electric plant, the installations of electric field irrigation, and the construction of a sugar cane mill of 3,000 tons capacity.
For two years he was general superintendent and chief engineer to the Palma Soriana Sugar Company at Oriente, Cuba, and in 1923 he was appointed chief engineer on the sugar estates of Oriente and Associated Companies. From 1926 until he took up his appointment in Florida, he was chief mechanical and electrical engineer to the Compafiia Azucarera Vertientes and took charge of a very large cane mill. He was also consulting engineer to the Camaguey Sugar Company. Mr. Scharnberg, who was elected a Member of the Institution in 1929, was the author of books on sugar milling problems, and on the efficient grinding capacity of cane mills, as well as works on the balancing of high-speed rotors, and other engineering subjects.