Josef Anton Riedel

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Josef Anton Riedel, ca.1910

Josef Anton Riedel also Josef Riedel the Younger (* 20th April 1862 in Kořenov , then Polaun; † 20th January 1924 in Tiefenbach, today part Desná II - Potočná the municipality Desná ) was a Czech chemist and entrepreneur . He came from the glassmaker family of the same name and after the death of his father in 1894 took over the company from which today's Riedel Glas emerged . He ran it until his own death in 1924.

Life

Josef Anton Riedel the Elder J. comes from the second marriage of Josef Riedel the Elder to Johanna geb. Neuwinger. He studied in Dresden and at the École de Chemie in Mulhouse . His higher education enabled him to develop numerous new glass manufacturing processes and to apply for patents . He also built the first glass laboratory in Northern Bohemia.

When he was 32 years old, his father died and he took over his father's life's work as the seventh generation in a row. In addition to glass production for domestic use, Riedel developed numerous applications for glass in the technical field. So- called tarnishing colors developed under his leadership . It went z. B. a brilliant yellow into a rich yellow and a borax pink into a carnelian. In the in-house bronze factory, it was possible to spray low-melting metals onto glass.

These developments came just right for the assembly of the then emerging colored traffic lights , the reflectors for vehicles (cats eyes), waterproof street lamps , insulators and many more for high-voltage lines, but also in the core area of the glass-making, the use of glass , he scored groundbreaking technical innovations: after ten years of development, succeeded the manufacture of a machine to mechanize the production of glass rods and tubes. Previously, so-called jumpers had to stretch the viscoplastic glass in the up to 200 m long pulling aisles. A machine was also used to thread the pearls. The improvement of the production of fused pearls in the Rocaille process brought Polaun to a leading position worldwide.

India was a large sales area for the North Bohemian glass industry. Hundreds of thousands of brightly colored glass hoops were made for India alone . The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened the sea route to India by 10,000 km and facilitated transport there. At the turn of the century, Riedel employed 400 glassmakers alone. In addition, there were around 6,000 glassblowers and 20,000 home workers in the border region around Gablonz , some of them in the surrounding area .

After his death in 1924, his grandson Walter Riedel took over management of the company.

Social commitment and honors

Many glass workers at the time had lung problems. In 1904, Riedel founded a lung sanatorium at the district hospital in Tannwald (Bohemia) . Together with a student of the well-known surgeon Prof. Theodor Billroth , Dr. Schwertassek, considerable progress was made in the differentiation between tuberculosis and silicosis (dust lung), which had considerable consequences for the very different therapy. He had workers' apartments built according to the latest hygienic advances.

In 1888 he received the Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order from Emperor Franz Josef .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Esser: Riedel . Droemer Verlag Munich 2005. ISBN 3-426-27373-X , p. 96.
  2. ↑ Stefan Esser: Riedel . Droemer Verlag Munich 2005. ISBN 3-426-27373-X , p. 97.
personal data
SURNAME Riedel, Josef Anton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riedel d. J., Josef Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bohemian chemist and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Polaun
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1924
Place of death Tiefenbach