Alois Auer from Welsbach

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Alois Auer Ritter von Welsbach. Lithograph.

Alois Auer Ritter von Welsbach (born May 11, 1813 in Wels , Austria ob der Enns , as Alois Auer ; † July 10, 1869 in Hietzing near Vienna ) was an Austrian printer, inventor and botanical illustrator. He was mainly active in the 1940s and 50s of the 19th century. In addition to numerous works in German and other languages, he wrote the first on natural self-printing . He was director of the Austrian state printing company , which produced illustrated books of scientific interest.

Live and act

Alois Auer comes from the rafting family Matthias Auer and Maria Anna, née Mayr. In October 1849 he married Therese, daughter of the businessman Neuditschka, in Wels. They were the parents of Alois jun. and Carl (1858–1929), the later Austrian chemist, inventor and entrepreneur, and their daughters Leopoldine and Amalie. In 1860 the Auer family was promoted to the nobility as knights of Welsbach, and in 1901 their son Carl was raised to baron .

Auer's early career began teaching Italian, after which he gained increasing language skills on his travels through Germany, France and England. He applied the knowledge he had acquired in his studies of typography technology when he became director of the printing house of the Viennese court in 1841 . The types of jewelry he developed allowed greater flexibility, and the company became very successful due to the ability to represent 500 European dialects (excluding Russian, Turkish and Hebrew) and almost 150 languages ​​around the world.

The first published work on natural printing was The Discovery of the Natural Printing Process. In it, he detailed the use of plant material, rock, and textile fabric pressed into lead or rubber to demonstrate what he saw as a great advance in the production of botanical works. His intention was to create "artistic-scientific objects" and thereby largely reduce the problems involved in the production of herbaria and other natural history works. Another illustrator, Henry Bradbury, began working on similar production processes after seeing Auer's invention.

Polygraphy by
Alois Auer von Welsbach
Salzdruck (photography), 1853

His interest in natural sciences and languages ​​was reflected both in publications containing his works on the numerous printing processes and in the extraordinary success of the state printing company itself. Apart from the volumes and tables produced by the natural printing process, he also published some of the first books with photographic parts. The publication Microphotography is said to have been the first.

He invented a "typometric" system that made it easier to use many alien alphabets with types of jewelry used in typesetting. This was described in his work The polygraphic apparatus .

His position as director of the Wiener k. u. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei from 1841 to 1864 brought some advances in automated high-speed printing, copper plate printing and new typographic processes, making the printing company a world-famous company under his leadership.

He gave lectures on languages ​​and later became director of the Austrian state porcelain factory.

Auer was the first honorary citizen of his home town of Wels. In 1856 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina Scholars' Academy . It rests in the family crypt in the Hietzingen cemetery .

Grave of Alois Auer von Welsbach in the family crypt in the Hietzingen cemetery

literature

Web links

Commons : Alois Auer  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vienna: KuK Hof- und Staatsdruckerei , 1853. 4 volumes; Italian, French, English, German.
personal data
SURNAME Auer von Welsbach, Alois
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Auer Ritter von Welsbach, Alois; Auer, Alois (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian printer, inventor and botanical illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Wels , Upper Austria
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1869
Place of death Vienna