Kern & Co.
| Kern & Co. AG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1819 (initially as mechanical workshop Jakob Kern ) |
| resolution | May 13, 1988 |
| Reason for dissolution | Takeover with transfer of operations (from Kern Swiss to Wild Leitz AG ) |
| Seat | Aarau , Switzerland |
| management |
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| Number of employees |
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| Branch | Measuring instruments |
The Kern & Co. AG was an international manufacturer of measuring instruments for geodesy and photogrammetry from Aarau in Switzerland .
After its establishment as a mechanical workshop Jakob Kern in 1819, the company changed in 1885 to & Kern Co. and in 1914 the corporation & Kern Co. AG . On May 13, 1988, the founder's families sold their company to their former competitor and later cooperation partner, Wild Heerbrugg . In the recently from the Wild Heerbrugg AG with Ernst Leitz Wetzlar GmbH formed Wild Leitz Group, from 1989 Wild Leitz AG , went Kern & Co to complete. The factory at the headquarters in Aarau was closed in 1991.
history
The company was founded in 1819 by Jakob Kern (* August 17, 1790; † February 4, 1867) as the mechanical workshop Jakob Kern in the small town of Aarau in the canton of Aargau . Kern first learned the trade of a blacksmith in Aarau and then went to Munich. At that time, the city was considered a major center for the construction of precision mechanical instruments. After his return to Switzerland, Kern first produced drawing tools and other drawing implements. In 1857 the company moved to the Aarau district of Ziegelrain and Adolf Kern-Saxer (1826–1896) and Emil Kern-Rychner (1830–1898), the founder's two sons, joined the company. In 1863, Jakob Kern retired.
Adolf Kern passed the management of the company on to his son Heinrich Kern (1857–1934) in 1885; the company was renamed Kern & Co. and was converted in 1914 into the corporation Kern & Co. AG . In 1920 the company opened a new business in Aarauer Schachen .
While the company had grown steadily in the 19th century, it ran into economic difficulties after the First World War. The production of the optical devices that were newly included in the production was only poorly utilized and the new types of surveying instruments manufactured by Heinrich Wild in Heerbrugg formed increasingly superior competition. At the end of 1921 the company was temporarily shut down and the owners had to write off 30% of the share capital. Kern's technological backlog grew larger and larger, and by 1930 his designs were so outdated that they could no longer be renewed on their own. In 1932 there was a further depreciation of 50% of the share capital.
The company gained new financial security and its reputation for innovation with the transfer of Heinrich Wild , who left his own foundation after 1930 and in 1937 brought several pioneering patents for the modernized and more precise production of theodolites and partial circles to the Kern company. The miniaturization of mechanical components and new types of circular dividing machines contributed to the success . DK1, DKM1 , DKM2-A and DKM3 were world-famous as quality products and were considered the most compact and precise theodolites of their size for almost 50 years.
After the Second World War, the core of the business grew mainly in the field of optical devices, after investments were made in the development of lenses for photo and cine cameras from 1940 onwards - initially only to better utilize the production of telescopes for surveying. The company soon became known worldwide as a developer and manufacturer of lenses for Paillard-Bolex cameras, but became increasingly dependent on the camera manufacturer Ernest Paillard & Cie . With a surprisingly tough reorganization, the company went on the opposite course in 1958. The director, who advocated the production of lenses, was fired. The management decided to concentrate on surveying instruments again and founded a new, efficient development department for this purpose. The realignment at Kern & Co came just in time. In 1963, the Paillard-Bolex business suffered a severe drop in sales. The camera manufacturer "overslept" the development of the Super-8 film format .
From about 1960 built Kern & Co. also Indicators (autographs and accessories) for Photogrammetry and Cartography and developed a specifically to the Geosciences coordinated LIS - GIS system. At that time, Peter Kern was the fifth generation of the family to be represented in the company's management.
Under Walter Kern (1888–1974), Kern Instruments Inc. was founded in the USA in 1945, the first subsidiary that moved to its new headquarters in Port Chester from 1955 . In 1976 in Canada , the core instrument of Canada Ltd. and in 1976 two more daughters in Brazil and Denmark .
The company lost market share in the 1980s due to cost disadvantages as a result of the high quality standards and mismanagement. It began to cooperate with Wild Heerbrugg , the largest European producer based in Eastern Switzerland . Finally, between 1988 and 1992, Kern & Co. AG was successively merged into Kern SWISS , Wild Leitz AG , Leica Aarau AG and most recently Leica Geosystems ( Unterentfelden ); the production facilities in Aarau were closed in 1991.
Products
- Drawing equipment (for technical drawings)
- Instruments for geodetic and astronomical surveying (especially theodolites and distance measuring devices)
- Autographers and accessories for photogrammetry and cartography
- Land information system and geographic information system
- Army field glasses 8x30
See also
Web links
- Current website of the study collection of the former company Kern & Co. AG in the Aarau City Museum
- Virtual archive of Wild-Heerbrugg AG
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Kern & Co. AG Aarau, Works for Precision Mechanics, Optics and Electronics (PDF; 274 kB). In: IN.KU-Bulletin No. 46, September 2005, accessed on October 25, 2017
- ↑ a b Kern & Co. AG - Works for precision mechanics, optics and electronics 1819 to 1991 in Aarau , study collection in the Aarau city museum , accessed on October 18, 2017
- ↑ Milestones of Kern & Co. AG at www.wild-heerbrugg.com , accessed on October 18, 2017 (English)