Robert Zahn (designer)

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Robert Zahn

Robert Zahn (born March 23, 1861 in Münchberg , † January 21, 1914 in Leipzig ) was a German engineer and industrialist. Zahn began building embroidery machines . As later director of the Vogtland machine factory (VOMAG), he played a major role in the technical improvement of the machines produced. Under his leadership, the Plauen-based company rose to become one of the leading mechanical engineering stock corporations in Germany.

Life

Zahn was born the son of Christian Karl Zahn and his wife Johanna Louise (née Jahris). He attended school in Münchberg, later the trade school in Hof (Saale) . He did not complete a course of study at the Mittweida technical center , which he began in 1876 . In 1882 he found a job as a technician at the Kappel embroidery machine factory . Here he acquired basic knowledge in mechanical engineering. However, he saw better opportunities for promotion at the Hilscher knitting and embroidery factory, so he moved there in 1894. Together with Max Hilscher, he registered his first two imperial patents in 1895. The following year he went to Plauen to join the Vogtland machine factory (VOMAG). After a three-year stay at the world's largest machine embroidery company Feldmühle AG in Rorschach , Switzerland, he returned to Plauen in 1900. VOMAG granted the talented designer the creative freedom that should favor his successful career. In 1904 - Zahn was already the second director of VOMAG - he was appointed sole director by the supervisory board. From his numerous business trips, he not only brought new orders with him, but above all suggestions for improving VOMAG machines. Under his leadership, the company continued to expand its embroidery machine and rotary printing press divisions .

Zahn was married to Luise Seidel in his first marriage. The marriage ended in divorce in 1913. In December he married his long-time girlfriend Paula Grabner. The children Hans, Friedrich, Walther and Erna come from both relationships. On January 21, 1914, Zahn died unexpectedly as a result of an intestinal operation in a Leipzig hospital. The burial took place in the Leipzig South Cemetery .

Services

Shuttle embroidery machine with automatic system ZAHN (1913)

Through his work as a designer in the Kappel embroidery machine factory, Zahn was very familiar with the technology of the shuttle embroidery machine based on Isaak Gröbli's system. During his stay in Switzerland, he had learned about their further development into an embroidery machine with a jacquard device , which was controlled using a punched card tape. The automaton was developed by J. Arnold Gröbli , a son of Isaak Gröbli . Since Zahn had successfully worked on optimizing the Gröbli automatic embroidery machine in Switzerland, an exclusive license agreement was signed in 1900 for the production of Gröbli automatic embroidery machines at VOMAG.

In order to break away from the Swiss patents, a design team headed by Robert Zahn further developed the Gröbli machine, including an associated punching machine . From 1909 VOMAG delivered a technically sophisticated embroidery machine that it had developed itself. The machine based on the "tooth system" was marketed very successfully and by 1912 2,000 embroidery machines of this type had already been sold. This made the Plauen mechanical engineering company the world's leading manufacturer of embroidery machines.

As an engineer, manager and from 1904 as director of VOMAG, Zahn had a significant influence on the direction of the Vogtland mechanical engineering company. The construction of rotary printing machines , which began in 1899, was perfected under his leadership . In 1908 Vomag u. a. the BZ at noon with the largest and fastest rotary printing presses at the time. In 1912, the company presented the world's first rotary offset press . In addition, there were already considerations for the construction of trucks, but these were not implemented until 1915.

Honors

Münchberg honored his important son in 2015 with an information board on the house where he was born. The city of Plauen named a street after Robert Zahn. In addition, the Plauen show embroidery shop cherishes the memory of Robert Zahn. Here there is still a functioning automatic embroidery machine based on the tooth system.

literature

  • Rudolf Hundhausen: Vogtländische Maschinenfabrik AG Plauen In: The German Industry (1888-1913), Berlin 1913 pp. X141-X149.
  • Director Robert Zahn (obituary). In: Vogtländischer Anzeiger and Tageblatt of January 22, 1914
  • Willy Erhardt: Luck on the needle point. Vogtland-Verlag Plauen 1995, pp. 123-133
  • Heino Strobel, Andreas Krone: Manager on a global scale. In: Historikus, Heft 1, 2014, Ed. PbK, pp. 9-12

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Krone, Heino Strobel: Major order for Berlin. In: Historikus, Heft 3, 2014, Ed. PbK, p. 8
personal data
SURNAME Zahn, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer and industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Münchberg
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1914
Place of death Leipzig