Bell machine factory
The Bell Maschinenfabrik AG Kriens was a Swiss company for the production of water turbines , cable cars , steel bridges and other steel structures .
history
The trained goldsmith August BellMarkus Lischer: Bell, August. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . founded a mechanical workshop in Kriens in 1855 for the production of braiding machines and looms for borders , which were mainly used in the own weaving and spinning company founded ten years earlier. In 1859 the first Jonval turbine was built, which at that time was the usual drive for factories in the textile industry. The turbine was delivered to a twisting mill in Zurich, where it was still in operation in 1959.
After studying mechanical engineering in Karlsruhe , Theodor Bell joined Markus Lischer: Bell, Theodor. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . In 1860 he joined his parents' company, which finally became a machine factory after the textile companies were closed. In the same year the first paper machine was built and in 1862 Bell received the first major contract to build a railway bridge, the Reuss Bridge for the Swiss National Railway near Mellingen .
In 1870 the management of the company was transferred from August Bell to Theodor Bell, who ran the stock company for the machine factory owned by Theodor Bell & Cie. founded. The company entered the business with cable cars, because these systems were originally powered by water turbines. 1877 Bell built on the route Lausanne-Ouchy the first cable railway in Switzerland, which served the public transport and two Girard turbines powered.
Bell built the Thorenberg power station near Littau in 1885 to generate single-phase alternating current . It is considered the oldest such system in the world, whose electricity is used for the first electric lights in the city of Lucerne and especially for those of the glacier garden. Theodor Bell was also involved in founding the Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke (CKW) and initiated the construction of the Kriens-Luzern-Bahn (KLB).
The Bell machine factory was increasingly active in export. Funiculars have been delivered to France, Italy, Russia, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal and Japan, with 14 installations in Japan being built within 7 years. After Theodor Bell's death, the family business , which was badly affected by the global economic crisis , had to be sold in 1936. First the Volksbank Luzern held the majority of the shares, then Heinrich Wachter, the brother of the director Ernst Wachter who was appointed after the family business was sold.
Between 1950 and 1970, under the name Bell 13 big in Switzerland and North America gondolas type Wallmann Berger built. In 1959 the company, now renamed Bell Maschinenfabrik AG , was taken over by Escher Wyss AG in Zurich, which in turn merged with Sulzer AG in Winterthur in 1967 . This gave Bell better access to the world markets, but concentrated more on the turbine business. In 1970 and 1971, the manufacture of crane systems, cable cars, paper machines and steel structures was given up. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, unsuccessful attempts were made to manufacture peat presses and systems for the production of plastic bottles. The company was renamed Bell - Escher Wyss AG in 1991 and Sulzer Hydro AG in 1995 , with which the name Bell disappeared from the scene.
Sulzer Hydro AG was taken over by the Austrian VA Technologie in 2000 and initially renamed VA Tech Escher Wyss AG , but from 2001 onwards it was called VA Tech Hydro AG . In 2005, the VA technology was developed by Siemens acquired, after which the EU - Antitrust Authority the sale of the hydroelectric power plant division demanded. As a result, VA Tech Hydro AG came to the Austrian company Andritz AG in 2006 and is now known as Andritz Hydro AG .
literature
- Hilar Stadler: Bell in the world. The machine factory Bell AG Kriens Brunner Verlag, Kriens 2008, ISBN 978-3-03727-026-4 .
(on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name from the Museum im Bellpark, Kriens from August 15 to November 9, 2008) - A. Ostertag: On the history of the AG der Maschinenfabrik Theodor Bell & Cie., Kriens-Luzern , Schweizerische Bauzeitung, Volume 73, Issue 35, 1955 [1] .
Web links
- Swiss cable car companies: Bell Maschinenfabrik AG. In: Cable car nostalgia.
- Andritz Hydro in Kriens, Switzerland. Andritz(official website of the successor company's Swiss location).
- Andritz Hydro AG. Commercial register entry. Commercial Register Lucerne
Individual evidence
- ↑ Over 80 years of experience in ropeway construction. In: Peter W. Röthlisberger (Hrsg.): Bergbahnen der Schweiz. Obersee-Verlag, Siebnen 1959
- ↑ Swiss cable car companies on cable car nostalgia , accessed on August 31, 2009
- ↑ a b Bell Maschinenfabrik AG, Kriens. Lucerne State Archives, accessed on June 16, 2020 .
- ↑ Filip Erzinger: Bell in the world. Bell Maschinenfabrik AG Kriens. In: Museum in Bellpark Kriens. Accessed June 16, 2020 (German).