Diedrich Uhlhorn

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Diedrich Uhlhorn (born June 3, 1764 in Bockhorn ; † October 5, 1837 in Grevenbroich ) was a German inventor and designer. He is the inventor of the toggle press for minting coins and medals, which he built in Grevenbroich in 1817 and whose minting process for coins is still the common method today.

Live and act

On June 3, 1764 Diedrich was born as the first son of the farmer and carpenter Christian Gerhard Uhlhorn (1735–1804) and Wübke Katharine. von Lindern (1737–1819) born in Bockhorn . Uhlhorn was a docile student and took an early interest in physics and mathematics . For this reason, his interest in the manufacture of optical and physical instruments was apparently greater than in his father's carpentry business where he was an apprentice. Inevitably there had to be disputes between him and his father, so that Uhlhorn, disinherited from his father, had to go his own way and from 1794 ran a small workshop for the manufacture of physical and mathematical instruments in Bockhorn, in which he, for example, air pumps, spirit levels, sundials , Electrifying machines and above all telescopes of high technical perfection.

In 1796 Uhlhorn received a visit from Gerhard Anton von Halem in his workshop , who published an enthusiastic description of the encounter in his magazine "Blätter mixed contents" and recommended him to the Duke of Oldenburg , Peter Friedrich Ludwig . In 1797 Uhlhorn built a telescope for the Duke, who thanked him with an annual pension of 150 Reichstalers and appointed Uhlhorn as Duke-Holstein-Oldenburg Court Mechanic that same year. With this help, Uhlhorn could now deal more intensively with his experiments.

In 1800 he made his first trip to the Rhenish industrial area in order to set up the first cloth shearing machine designed according to his specifications for the businessman JW Thomas in Hückeswagen .

In 1801 he moved his residence from Bockhorn to the vicinity of the state capital Oldenburg in order to be able to better use the variety of craftsmen for partial work of his apparatus and educational institutions for scientific studies. In the following years, Uhlhorn published two writings that earned him recognition in specialist circles. In 1804, with his answer to the question of the best division of the teeth of a mill wheel, he won a prize awarded by the Hamburg Society for Art and Crafts and in 1809 he published a book on the calculation of spherical intersection lines. However, his main interest was the invention and construction of work machines. In addition to his cloth shearing machine, he also designed tobacco cutting and rapping machines as well as wool scraping and spinning machines.

As the textile industry on the Lower Rhine was expanding under French rule , Uhlhorn and his family moved to Grevenbroich in 1810 and became the technical manager of Friedrich Koch's spinning mill . He also ran a textile machine workshop called “Uhlhorn & Thomas”. In 1812 he founded the scratch factory “Dch. Uhlhorn ”, which mainly worked with self-constructed machines and served the French market in this regard, but also survived the economic collapse after the fall of Napoleon . In addition, Ohlhorn also worked on a number of other inventions.

In 1817 Uhlhorn invented a tachometer based on the principle of speed measurement using centrifugal force . Later, in 1844, it was used in locomotives .

Also in 1817, Diedrich Uhlhorn invented the toggle press, a new type of coin minting machine. In 1818 his invention was presented at the Royal Mint in Düsseldorf . Uhlhorn's new types of automatically working machines produced coins of a previously unattainable perfection and were used at the Berlin mint as early as 1820 . After that, Uhlhorn expanded across Europe with his invention and the company founded for it. The joints of the toggle press were also used in his centrifugal tachometer.

In 1822 the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III awarded him . the general decoration of the Red Eagle Order for his services .

In 1824 he transferred the scratch factory to his two living sons from his first marriage, Christian and Gerhard, and devoted himself to the manufacture of coinage machines with his youngest son Johann Heinrich. The "workshop for minting machines" was completely taken over by Johann Heinrich after Uhlhorn's death.

Diedrich Uhlhorn died at the age of 73 on October 5, 1837 in Grevenbroich.

family

On August 31, 1794 Uhlhorn married Gesche Margarete b. Schwoon (born January 23, 1773 in Bockhorn-Steinhausen; † July 8, 1803, suicide), daughter of Bockhorn Brinkitzer Gerd Schwoon (born January 22, 1729 in Bockhorn, † November 8, 1805 ibid), sister of Johann Hinrich Schwoon ( * June 11, 1768 in Steinhausen, † March 9, 1837 in Bockhorn-Kranenkamp), master carpenter and building contractor in Kranenkamp. He in turn married Margarete, Uhlhorn's sister, on August 21, 1798 in Bockhorn (born December 3, 1735 in Bockhorn, † March 13, 1804 ibid). Uhlhorn's first marriage resulted in four sons and a daughter: Christian (* 1795), Gerhard (* 1797), Diedrich (* 1800), Heinrich (* 1801) and Gesche Katharina (* 1803). After the death of his wife on July 8, 1803, he entered into a second marriage with Johanna Katharina Klaener on January 25, 1805. From this connection, the later Commerzienrat Johann Heinrich Uhlhorn (1805–1888) emerged as the only son , who later took over the production of coin machines. Uhlhorn's grandson Diedrich Uhlhorn junior (1843–1915) became an engineer and fruit grower.

Works

  • Contributions to improving mill construction. Hamburg 1804
  • Discoveries in higher geometry. Oldenburg 1809 ( books.google.com )
  • Theoretical and practical treatise on a newly invented speedometer, initially for mechanics, manufacturers, builders and others. Verlag der Hermannschen Buchhandlung, Frankfurt am Main 1817 ( digitized version )
  • Using two new dynamometers, or force gauges, in order to be able to use them to determine the forces of people, horses, water and wind, with circular movement of machines ( digitalisat )

literature

personal data
SURNAME Uhlhorn, Diedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Uhlhorn, Dietrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German inventor of the toggle press
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1764
PLACE OF BIRTH Bockhorn
DATE OF DEATH October 5, 1837
Place of death Grevenbroich