Johann Sebastian Staedtler

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Johann Sebastian Staedtler (* 1800 in Nuremberg ; † 1872 ibid) was a German pencil manufacturer and inventor of the wood-cased crayon or crayon based on oil chalk.

Life

Education and family

Johann Sebastian Staedtler, the eldest son of the Nuremberg pencil manufacturer Paulus Staedtler (1779–1852), learned how to make lead and red chalk pencils from his father. Since the manufacture of pencils was part of the independent trade after the transfer of the imperial city of Nuremberg to the Kingdom of Bavaria , his training did not take place as part of a craft apprenticeship completed with a journeyman's examination . After approval of his application to settle on December 30, 1824 by the City of Nuremberg's magistrate , he married Magdalena Neubauer, the daughter of a Tüncher journeyman. Together they founded a household in Wöhrd near Nuremberg. The marriage resulted in four sons, Johann Georg the Elder (1822–1872), Wolfgang (1825–1885), Johann Georg the Younger (1832–1876) and Abraham Jakob the Elder (1835–1882). In the middle of the 1830s the family moved back to the old town of Nuremberg and bought a house suitable for pencil production, Herzgässchen 8. In 1837 the family moved to Johannisgasse 13/15.

Invention of the colored pencil

Color table of the colored pencils available from JS Staedtler.

After multiple attempts in 1834, Johann Sebastian Staedtler succeeded in producing a wood-cased red colored pencil that could be “sharpened to the finest possible level like pencils” and that was constant in color and hardness. He made his development public on February 26, 1834 in Der Korrespondent von und für Deutschland . He had developed a process for the production of initially red, then differently colored oil chalk leads, in which color pigments were mixed with binding agents, ground several times, pressed, dried in the oven and then the leads were impregnated with wax . The oil chalk leads formed a closed body through binding agents and provided a smear that adhered firmly to paper. The use of binders and the impregnation with wax were the decisive technological steps from red chalk and pastel chalk pencils, which were difficult to sharpen due to the fragility of their leads and were unsuitable for writing, to the basic shape of today's colored or colored pencil. This makes Johann Sebastian Staedtler the inventor of the colored pencils.

Company formation

Johann Sebastian Staedtler worked in his father's company in Engelhardtsgasse in Nuremberg until 1835, which employed around 40 people in the 1830s. In 1835 he started his own business after taking an exam to run a pencil factory. The Bavarian Trade Act of 1825 stipulated the passing of a qualification test as a prerequisite for obtaining a trade concession. On October 9, 1835, he received the business license to manufacture pencils and founded the company "JS Staedtler".

Pencil manufacturer

Creta Polycolor colored pencils in a box of dozen.

In addition to pencils, the company "JS Staedtler" initially produced red colored pencils using the process developed by Johann Sebastian Staedtler, and from 1844 at the latest, colored pencils in different colors. The company introduced the “Creta Polycolor” product brand for colored pencils in the 1850s.

In the manufacturing process, Johann Sebastian Staedtler made the step from manual to industrial production. Hydropower powered the company's grinding and cutting machines. For this purpose, Johann Sebastian Staedtler acquired the upper water wheel No. 2 of the Rotschmiedsmühle on the Pegnitz in Nuremberg. With a cutting machine, two graphite grinding mills and a lead press, Staedtler took over further machines in 1843 from the bankruptcy estate of his parents' pencil factory "Paul Staedtler & Son", which his brother Christian Friedrich Staedtler had continued since September 1836.

The sales area of ​​the lead and especially the colored pencils was the area of ​​the German customs union . To promote sales, the company took part in industrial exhibitions several times , for example in 1840 with 63 different types of pencil at the Nuremberg Industrial Exhibition and in 1844 with pencils, crayons and colored pencils in different colors at the General German Trade Exhibition in Berlin . In the 1850s, the company started exporting to neighboring European countries. In England, the agency Mittler & Eckardt represented the company in London.

In 1850 Johann Georg Staedtler the Elder joined the company as managing director. With a contract dated December 31, 1855, Johann Sebastian Staedtler and his wife handed over the company to their three oldest sons, who continued to run it together.

JS Staedtler pencil factory

JS Staedtler pencil factory 1860.

Johann Georg Staedtler the Elder, Johann Georg Staedtler the Younger and in 1856 also Wolfgang Staedtler rebuilt the company into a factory in accordance with Paragraph 171 of the 1853 Industrial Code. After receiving the factory license in 1854, they acquired the Hadermühle 23 b and Bottle courtyard 31–34 buildings in Nuremberg and invested more than 12,000 guilders in the factory's machinery. They set up a steam engine as the central source of power. Hydropower was also used.

The company concentrated on the manufacture of colored pencils and in 1866, with 54 workers, produced 15,000 gros (equivalent to 2.16 million pieces) of different colored crayons and pencils worth 75,000 guilders. The company was thus one of the five largest of the 20 pencil manufacturers in the Nuremberg area. It sold its products in the Zollverein area, Austria, France, England, Italy, Russia, the USA and "in the Orient". The international sales also reflected the participation in the industrial exhibitions in London in 1862 and Paris in 1867.

In 1871 the company got into financial difficulties and could only save itself through a settlement. Johann Georg Staedtler the Younger took over the management until his death in 1876. JS Staedtler sold his nephew Abraham Jakob the Younger (1852–1922) to Georg Reindel in 1878 after only two years of management. In 1880 Ludwig Kreutzer joined the factory, which had meanwhile been converted into an open trading company, as a partner and expanded it into an internationally active company, today “Staedtler Mars”.

Pencil factory Wolfgang Staedtler & Co.

In 1856, Wolfgang Staedtler left the JS Staedtler company and started his own business at Albrecht-Dürer-Platz in Nuremberg. On June 26, 1857, he received a factory license and founded the company "Wolfgang Staedtler & Co." in the street Am Spitzenberg. With up to twelve workers, the company mainly produced colored pencils and pencils, which it mainly sold on the local market. It was equipped with two hand mills for grinding paint, two cutting saws, a slot machine and a planer. The company operated a graphite mill with hydropower in the nearby Rotschmiedsmühle on the Pegnitz in Nuremberg. In 1889, Friedrich Wuzel, a non-family member, took over the company and renamed it a GmbH. In 1912, the JS Staedtler pencil factory acquired and integrated the sister company.

Awards

Honor coin 1840.

At the general industrial exhibition in Nuremberg in 1840, Johann Sebastian Staedtler received a medal for the quality of the pencils on display. His company was awarded a medal at the General German Trade Fair in Berlin in 1844 for the innovative crayons based on oil pastel .

literature

  • Johannes Bischoff: On the family history of old Nuremberg pencil makers. Nuremberg 1939.
  • Johann Sebastian Staedtler. In: Barbara Christoph, Günter Dippold (Ed.): Patents Franconia. Bayreuth, 2nd edition 2017.
  • Rudolf Endres, Martina Fleischmann: Nuremberg's way into the modern age. Economy, politics and society in the 19th and 20th centuries. W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 1996, p. 99.
  • Rudolf Geiger: The pencil makers Staedtler and their significance for the history of the pencil. A contribution to the history of Nuremberg's craft and industry. Sebaldus-Verlag, Nuremberg 1952.
  • August Jegel: The economic development of Nuremberg-Fürth, Stein and the Nuremberg area since 1806. Spindler, Nuremberg 1952.
  • Eduard Schwanhäußer: The Nuremberg pencil industry and its workers in the past and present. Schrag Verlag, Nuremberg 1895.
  • Ernst Schwanhäusser: pencils, colored pencils, copier pens. In: W. Foerst (Ed.): Ullmanns Encyklopadie der technischen Chemie. Urban and Schwarzenberg, Munich 3rd edition 1964, pp. 343–347.
  • Paul Wiessner: The beginnings of the Nuremberg factory industry. Pöppinghaus, Langendreer 1929.
  • Richard Winkler: Staedtler, pencil manufacturer. (possibly). In: Stolberg-Wernigerode, Otto zu (Hrsg.): New German biography. Vol. 25, Berlin, 2013, pp. 18-19 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Rudolf Geiger: The pencil makers Staedtler and their significance for the history of the pencil. A contribution to the history of Nuremberg's craft and industry. Sebaldus-Verlag, Nuremberg 1952, pp. 47-52.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Richard Winkler: Staedtler, pencil manufacturers. (possibly). In: Stolberg-Wernigerode, Otto zu (Hrsg.): New German biography. Vol. 25, Berlin, 2013, pp. 18-19 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Matthias Weinrich: Staedtler Mars - writing and drawing equipment factories. ( Website article ) In: nuernberginfos.de. History, stories and faces of a city, accessed on May 27, 2020.
  4. ↑ Johann Sebastian Staedtler: A highly revered trading stand. In: The correspondent from and for Germany. 28th year, February 26th, 1834.
  5. ↑ Julia Sterzik: The crayon celebrates its 175th birthday. ( Website article ) In: wasistwas.de. February 17, 2009, accessed May 21, 2020.
  6. ↑ Barbara Kink: Handwerk (19th / 20th century) ( website article ) In: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns . August 21, 2012, accessed June 3, 2020.
  7. ↑ August Jegel: The economic development of Nuremberg-Fürth, Stein and the Nuremberg area since 1806. Spindler, Nuremberg 1952, pp. 248–249.
  8. ^ A b c Official report on the General German Trade Exhibition in Berlin in 1844. Karl Reimarus, Berlin 1844, Part Two, p. 140 ( digitized version ).
  9. ^ A b Price List of JS Staedtler Nuremberg (Germany). London 1860, p. 10 (Staedtler Mars company archive, call number D 0102 D2).
  10. ↑ Rudolf Geiger: The pencil makers Staedtler and their significance for the history of the pencil. A contribution to the history of Nuremberg's craft and industry. Sebaldus-Verlag, Nuremberg 1952, p. 56 (Nuremberg City Archives, Vc25 No. 6735).
  11. ↑ Johann Sebastian Staedtler auctioned the entire factory equipment with the exception of a non-functional cutting and rounding machine, cf. Rudolf Geiger: The pencil makers Staedtler and their significance for the history of the pencil. A contribution to the history of Nuremberg's craft and industry. Sebaldus-Verlag, Nuremberg 1952, pp. 55-56.
  12. ↑ a b Royal Central Industry Exhibition Commission (Hrsg.): List of all objects which were delivered to the Kingdom of Bavaria for the general industry delivery ordered for the year 1840 in Nuremberg Allerhöchst. Officially made known. Campe, Nuremberg 1840, p. 37 ( digitized version )
  13. ↑ a b c d e f Rudolf Geiger: The pencil makers Staedtler and their significance for the history of the pencil. A contribution to the history of Nuremberg's craft and industry. Sebaldus-Verlag, Nuremberg 1952. pp. 56-60.
  14. ^ Illustrated price list of the pencil factory by JS Staedtler "Inventor of the colored pencils" in Nuremberg. Nuremberg 1898, p. 4 (Staedtler Mars company archive, signature D 0102 D43).
personal data
SURNAME Staedtler, Johann Sebastian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur and inventor of the colored pencil
DATE OF BIRTH 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH 1872
Place of death Nuremberg