Albert Hirth

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Albert Hirth, around 1910

Albert Hirth (born October 7, 1858 in Meimsheim ; † October 12, 1935 in Nonnenhorn ) was a German engineer , inventor and entrepreneur . He was the founder of various companies in Cannstatt and chairman of the Association of Württemberg Industrialists .

Life

Youth and career entry

Albert Hirth (first from right) in the Presidium of the Hansa-Bund at a meeting in November 1912 in Berlin; also from left: Franz Heinrich Witthoefft , Hartmann von Richthofen, Jakob Riesser , Kurt von Kleefeld
Hirth serration made of aluminum, anodized in color to show the meshing of the teeth

Albert Hirth was born on October 7, 1858 as the son of the miller Ludwig Hirth in the Schellenmühle near Meimsheim. His father Ludwig Hirth was known as a tinkerer and "mill doctor". In his youth, Albert Hirth devised various technical devices to make work easier in his own household, such as an apparatus for unwinding strands of wool and a device for cutting pasta dough. Hirth completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic and mechanical engineer with the safe manufacturer Carl Ade in Stuttgart . After completing his apprenticeship, the subsequent wandering and working in a machine factory in Zurich , he returned to Stuttgart in 1878 and enrolled as a student at the building trade school in Stuttgart .

Professional career and business start-ups

In 1888, Hirth joined the Terrot circular knitting machine factory in Cannstatt as a designer and operations manager . In 1889, the improvements he made to the machines in his company received great attention at the Paris World Exhibition . During this time, Hirth registered patents for a paper mounting method for drawing boards , hatching rulers and adjustable drawing angles at the patent office. The watch manufacturer A.  Junghans brought Hirth to his Schramberg factory in 1894. Here he was able to rationalize the production of watches, also by new gear - milling machines and injection molding designed -Halbautomaten and started in manufacture. With the support of Junghans, Hirth founded his own design office in Stuttgart in 1898. Many inventions by this office have been patented.

In 1903 Albert Hirth took over the company Fortuna-Werke Albert Hirth in Cannstatt together with Emil Lilienfein , who was responsible for the commercial area . With the Fortuna leather sharpening and cylindrical grinding machine he succeeded again in a new development. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hirth began to work with Robert Bosch , whom he had met at the Paris Motor Show in 1900. Hirth manufactured ignition machines for his automobiles . At the same time, Hirth was busy with ball bearings and founded the company Norma for ball bearing production . The Hirth Minimeter precision measuring device was a by-product , with the help of which ball bearing grinding spindles could be manufactured with an accuracy of hundredths of a millimeter. To connect shafts, Hirth invented a special form of toothing, which is still used today as Hirth toothing in machine and engine construction.

In 1914 Albert Hirth founded the KACO company in Heilbronn together with Gustav Bach and Gustav Klein . The purpose of the company was to manufacture engine seals.

As a last major investment, he created a stock corporation under his name, Hirth AG, in 1922 . This company continued to exist after his death and operated a branch in Berlin-Neukölln on Braunauer Strasse (today Sonnenallee ).

Inventions and patents

Albert Hirth registered over 350 patents and inventions in his life. That is why he was also called the Swabian Edison .

Robert Bosch said of him: “Do you know to whom we basically owe the rapid development of the mass production of precision parts? Only the Hirth minimeter and the Fortuna ball grinding spindle. "

In September 1914, Hirth made preparations to build a giant helicopter , drawing on his 1908 patent . However, the lifting forces determined on the test stand were not yet sufficient. The beginning of the First World War prevented the further development of this idea. Future projects such as the design of a caterpillar tractor to explore the poles of the earth occupied Hirth as much as a giant hydrofoil for crossing the oceans.

Albert Hirth invented the four-color pencil at the age of 72 .

Private

Tomb in the Stuttgart forest cemetery

During his apprenticeship, Albert Hirth founded the 1st Cannstatter Cycle Club and worked as a high cyclist himself .

At the beginning of the 20th century, Albert Hirth, as a balloonist, was one of the founding members of the Württemberg Association for Aviation . He also became vice president of the Hansabund in 1909 .

After the end of the First World War, Albert Hirth met with Alfred Roth . After the prohibition of the “Schutz- und Trutzbund” in the summer of 1922, he temporarily had his domicile in Hirth's villa on Lake Constance.

His sons were the flight pioneer and designer Hellmuth Hirth and the glider pioneer Wolf Hirth .

Hirth's final resting place is in the forest cemetery in Stuttgart .

Honors

1921 awarded him the Technical University of Stuttgart , the honorary doctorate (as Dr.-Ing. Eh ). The primary school and a street in his birthplace Meimsheim were named after him.

Publications

literature

  • Gert Behrsing:  Hirth (Albert, Hellmuth, Wolf). In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , pp. 236-238 ( digitized version ).
  • Stefan Blumenthal: Albert Hirth and his sons Hellmuth and Wolf. A Swabian family of inventors . In: Jörg Baldenhofer (Ed.): Swabian inventors and inventors . DRW-Verlag, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-87181-232-3 , pp. 112-121.
  • Stefan Blumenthal: Greetings from the air . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01336-3 .
  • Historical and company brochures from Albert Hirth AG, Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. Inventors - father and sons. Albert Hirth Aktiengesellschaft, Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen 1941.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c New German Biography (see literature )
  2. History of Fortuna and Minimeter . fischerprecise.ch, (link no longer available), accessed on September 11, 2009
  3. ^ History of the Kaco , accessed on August 9, 2012
  4. Brief outline of the Fortuna-Werke Albert Hirth in the Baden-Württemberg Economic Archives , accessed on July 3, 2019
  5. Braunauer Strasse 241-257 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1942, part 4, p. 1909. “Hirth AG”.
  6. Uwe Lohalm: Völkischer Radikalismus. The history of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutz-Bund. 1919-1923 . Leibniz-Verlag, Hamburg 1970, ISBN 3-87473-000-X , p. 102, p. 269, p. 366.