Bojan Kraut was a Slovene mechanical engineer who wrote "Strojniški Priročnik" (English: "Mechanical Engineering Handbook"), a well-known reference text from former Yugoslavia

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...

.

Biography

Kraut was born in Kamnik

Kamnik

Kamnik is the name of a municipality in Slovenia as well as the town that serves as its administrative, cultural, economic, and educational center. The municipality is in north central Slovenia. It encompasses a large part of the Kamnik Alps and the surrounding area...

 where he finished elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

. He finished Gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 in Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

 in 1926. In 1932 he became a mechanical engineer after graduating from Zagreb University.

After working in Tivat

Tivat

Tivat is a coastal town in southwest Montenegro, located in the Bay of Kotor...

, he became a constructor

Design engineer

Design Engineer is a general term that covers multiple engineering disciplines including electrical, mechanical, industrial design and civil engineering, architectural engineers in the U.S...

 in Ljubljana's foundry. In 1937 he became a teaching assistant at the Ljubljana University where he received title of "honorary engineer". His last job before the Second World War was in Slavonski Brod

Slavonski Brod

Slavonski Brod is a city in Croatia, with a population of 59,507 in 2011. The city was known as Marsonia in the Roman Empire, and as Brod na Savi 1244–1934. It is the sixth largest city in Croatia, after Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek and Zadar. Located in the region of Slavonia, it is the...

, where he worked as a leading constructor of locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s and railcar

Railcar

A railcar, in British English and Australian English, is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach , with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railways, e.g., the Great Western...

s.

After WW2 he contributed to the restoration of Yugoslav industry. He worked as a leading engineer at Tovarna avtomobilov Maribor

Tovarna avtomobilov Maribor

Tovarna avtomobilov Maribor was a Yugoslav and Slovenian commercial vehicle manufacturer based in the city of Maribor.-History:TAM began as an aircraft-parts factory founded by the occupying Germans in 1941...

and later became a technical director

Technical director

The Technical Director or Technical Manager is usually a senior technical person within a software company, film studio, theatrical company or television studio...

 at the Litostroj

Litostroj

Litostroj is a Slovenian heavy machinery manufacturer based in Ljubljana. Its products include mainly water turbines for hydroelectric powerplants. Most of production is exported. It provided around 8000 MW of installed power worldwide. Around 150 of them are pumped storage. It has also designed...

machinery factory.

Finally he became a professor at the Ljubljana University and was elected for a Faculty Dean

Dean (education)

In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...

 and a University Rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

 later.

In April 1954 he published "Strojniški Priročnik", a handbook

Handbook

A handbook is a type of reference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to provide ready reference .A handbook is sometimes referred to as a vade mecum or pocket reference that is intended to be carried at all times.Handbooks may deal with any topic, and are generally...

for mechanical engineers. This handbook became popular among engineers from all parts of Yugoslavia and after Kraut's death in 1991 it was renamed to Krautov Strojniški Priročnik (Kraut's Mechanical Engineering Handbook). The Handbook is the best selling Slovenian scientific book ever.