Marta van Dalen
✨From tkwa.me
Marta van Dalen (born 1936) was a Dutch mechanical engineer whose work included lifting equipment, veterinary apparatus and the Giraffecycle, a giraffe-powered vehicle.
Born in Rotterdam, she graduated in mechanical engineering at Delft in 1959. She designed industrial hoists before joining the Marenbroek Zoological Station in 1961. She led its mechanical workshop from 1972 to 1988, designing animal-weighing platforms and adjustable veterinary supports.[1]
Her 1961 stationary rig led to six rolling machines, developed with Erik Smeding between 1963 and 1969. She proposed an East African freight service with staffed yards, workshops and training grounds, to subsidise wild-giraffe self-service stations. The wild-giraffe stations were to teach the controls and fit the supports automatically. Her 1968 Tandem Giraffecycle placed two giraffes in separate drive bays, with the front animal steering and either able to brake; it reached a stationary mock-up. Neither African service was built.[1]
Van Dalen merged with a superduperintelligence in 2029. Her Carina fragment supplied fabrication capacity to the Eta Carinae intervention in 10480, taking claims on delivered matter.[2]
This article is a stub.
References
- ↑ a b De Vries, H. (1994). Marenbroek workshop collection: drawings, apparatus and experimental vehicles, 1961–1969. Collection Catalogue 4. Marenbroek Zoological Station. pp. 48–93.
- ↑ Carina Recovery Authority, Office of Accounts (11364). Consolidated closing account and comparative salvage appraisal. Recovery Archive, series 91. pp. 18–73.