Friedrich Veith

Friedrich Veith (born April 24, 1860 in Mainz ; † September 6, 1908 in Sandbach ) was a Hessian inventor and entrepreneur who founded the Veith works in Sandbach, where he opened a rubber tire factory based on his own patents, which later became the Company Veith-Pirelli emerged .

Life

Friedrich Veith was the son of the innkeeper and hotelier Heinrich Veith, who died early, and his wife Christine Veith, née Schäfer. After studying engineering, Friedrich Veith passed his exam in 1882 and found employment in a Mainz machine factory. In 1886 he moved to Gelnhausen and became a partner in a boat building company and a sawmill. In 1889 he went to Frankfurt am Main to the Hölter & Hartmann rubber goods factory, where he worked as a production engineer with development and organizational tasks. He continuously strived to improve motorcycle and bicycle tires and had a number of inventions patented in this area.

Friedrich Veith married Philippine Wahlig, who came from Offenbach am Main , on April 4, 1894 and had two children with her, their son Friedrich, born on August 5, 1895, and their daughter Maria, born on September 14, 1896.

With his father-in-law Alexander Wahlig, he founded the company Veith & Co. in Offenbach on December 19, 1896 and began producing tires based on his own patents. His goals were aimed at increasing the service life, reducing wear and tear and slip resistance. He recognized that the introduction of a general standard in tire construction would make production much more efficient and cost-effective.

When Friedrich Veith bought a Benz automobile, he was confronted with the deficiencies of the tires that were common at the time. The service life of the usual high-pressure bead tires was at best 2,000 to 3,000 kilometers. When traveling, it was advisable to take four, six or more spare tires and tubes with you. Countless chunky hoof nails lying around on the streets destroyed the tires again and again. A tire change took around an hour, the entire wheel had to be removed, including the drive chain on the rear wheel.

From 1902 Veith began to deal with steam automobiles. He designed steam cars that should be of a lighter design compared to the heavy Serpollet vehicles that were emerging at the time . When the relevant construction plans were ready, he asked the Grand Duke of Hesse for his appraisal and inspection. He recommended him to the technology enthusiast Prince Heinrich of Prussia , the younger brother of the German emperor . An extensive correspondence developed with him until the end of his life, with Prince Heinrich soon recommending that he abandon the steam car and concentrate his inventive talent entirely on tires.

In the summer of 1903 Friedrich Veith bought a former oil mill on the Mümling in Sandbach im Odenwald , which used water power. He relocated his tire production there to produce standardized quality tires. He was the first tire manufacturer in Europe to introduce a tire standard and likewise standardized rims in consultation with the largest automobile factories of the time. Veith made his tires available to the Benz and Daimler plants for testing. When the emperor advocated equipping the army's transport troops with a number of Veith tires, they were subjected to extensive endurance and practical tests. On November 13, 1903, the company Veith & Co. Veithwerke near Höchst i. Odw. Registered to Sandbach .

The tires manufactured in Sandbach showed an astonishing operational reliability and durability. He called his most advanced type of tire a radial tire .

Veith received an order from Germania shipyard to supply tires for two trucks . They should be able to carry a total weight of 100 quintals . Because of the inadequacy of the pneumatic tires at the time, it was entirely decided not to build cars with a dead weight of more than 1000 kg (20 quintals). However, Veith was convinced that tires from his production would be able to cope with such stress. Veith truck tires proved their worth during the imperial maneuver .

When the Army and Navy Administration decided to equip all vehicles with Veith tires, a protracted and extremely unpleasant dispute began with Continental AG , which tried, also by unfair means, namely by infringing Veith patents, to get the annoying competitor out of the Crowd market. Veith found himself forced into a grueling patent dispute, which he ultimately won.

On November 23, 1906, at the instigation of Friedrich Veith, Veithwerke AG , based in Sandbach, was founded after he had found investors to put his company on a broader capital base. It now had a share capital of 2,000,000.00 marks.

Sickness and death

Friedrich Veith increasingly suffered from severe intestinal colic, so that he was only able to carry out his managerial tasks with great effort. From his sick bed he could find less and less time and energy to examine important documents. Although he was still able to make some important decisions, he died on September 6, 1908, only at the age of 49.

After his death, the widow Philippine Veith did not receive any payments from the Veith works, no royalties from patents, no support and with her underage children she had to vacate the house in the Veith works. On the advice of relatives, the widow applied for the administration of the estate, which ultimately lasted 10 years and in the course of which the estate was completely exploited by various parties through cost calculations, fees and depreciation.

Aftermath

Even if it was anything but a noble gesture on the part of the management of Veith-Werke AG at the time to leave the widow of the founder and general manager completely penniless to her fate, the name Veith has remained, to which the Breuberger Land is likely to have its first economic boom owed. Despite being renamed several times, the Sandbach plant is still popularly known as Die Veith .

literature

• Friedhelm Jöst: Friedrich Veith. Founder of the Veith-Werke - his life and work. Association for local history Höchst i. Odw. (Ed.), Druckerei Probst, Höchst im Odenwald 1997