Julius Pazzani (1841-1888)
1889 Obituary [1]
JULIUS PAZZANI was born on tile 16th of June, 1841, at Brunn, Austria, where his father, who was a Greek by birth, had settled on becoming a naturalized Austrian subject.
The younger Pazzani was educated at the Imperial Polytechnickum of Vienna, and in due time passed the principal examinations. In 1861, he entered the service of the Imperial Continental Gas Association as junior assistant at their Erdberg works, Vienna.
In 1868, he became Engineer of the Belvedere works of the same company, also in Vienna, which he entirely reconstructed, and greatly extended, insomuch that of what he found there, nothing remained in a few years. In 1880, Mr. Pazzani was transferred to the Rotterdam station of the Association as Chief Engineer. Here he rebuilt the Delfshaven works, and generally reorganized the business of the company.
Four years later, in 1884, he was removed to Amsterdam, also as Chief Engineer, with the special mission to construct two new gasworks, and to lay new mains and services all over the town. In this capacity Mr. Pazzani successfully carried out all the difficult and delicate negotiations involved in repiping a city of 400,000 inhabitants, being exposed, moreover, to the hostility of the old gas interest, which it was his business to supersede. Mr. Pazzani just lived long enough to complete this undertaking, the first station being put into operation in September 1885, and the second or Amstel works in the course of 1887.
Mr. Pazzani’s death was very sudden. On the evening of the 20th of October, 1888, he visited a friend, and on returning home complained of feeling unwell. He rapidly became unconscious, and died at seven o’clock the next morning - the immediate cause being a paralytic stroke.
Mr. Pazzani was elected a Member of the Institution on the 11th of January, 1887, and was also connected with the Gas Institute and the cognate bodies in Germany and Holland. In addition to being a notable engineer, Mr. Pazzani was a most amiable and accomplished man. He was a specially-skilled linguist, speaking with facility German, English, French, Italian, and Dutch