Chemical-technical library

The chemical-technical library , later also called Chetebi , was a series of books on technical subjects that appeared between 1875 and 1949 in a total of 423 volumes in A. Hartleben's publishing house in Vienna. The series was initiated by the Leipzig publishing director at the time, Eugen Marx, who also wanted to use other book series to spread the latest knowledge to non-academics.

The books contain easy-to-understand written instructions that are not overloaded with theory on the manufacture of chemicals, foodstuffs, building materials and handicrafts. The “chemical-technical library” accompanied the transition from manufacturing to industrial production and was aimed at innovative craftsmen, plant engineers and process engineers.

The print run of the small octave format 18 cm x 13 cm was around 1000 copies. Of the 389 volumes published up to 1928, 47% were published in more than one edition, with new editions often being largely revised.

meaning

The "chemical-technical library" in its entirety offers a similar, but far more detailed overview of all important areas of process engineering of the 19th and early 20th centuries, similar to the classic product lexicons (or the lexicon of all technology begun in 1894 ). The importance of the book series can be gauged from numerous translations. Several volumes have also been published as reprints since the 1980s. The “chemical-technical library” is often the only preserved source for researching rarely described manufacturing processes for special materials.

Awards

In 1877 the "State Culture Council for the Kingdom of Bohemia" decided in a plenary meeting "to express the thanks of the State Culture Council in writing to A. Hartleben, which is also so ambitious in the field of agricultural literature, in a special decree".

In 1886 the publishing project was awarded the silver medal on the occasion of the industrial exhibition in Linz and Krems, at the same time the A. Hartleben publishing house was honored with honorable recognition at the leather industrial exhibition in Ried and Pressburg.

literature

• The publishing house A. Hartleben. A monograph. (PDF; 10.6 MB), diploma thesis for obtaining the master’s degree in philosophy. Faculty of Humanities, University of Vienna , Vienna 1995. (main source of this article).
• Austro-Hungarian bookseller correspondence , No. 45 of November 10, 1887, p. 422.