Sebastian Geist

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Portrait of Sebastian Geist, year unknown

Sebastian Geist (* July 22, 1817 in Volkach ; † December 5, 1908 in Rosenheim ) was a watchmaker and pioneer in the field of electrical clocks. Geist was the first to produce a clock with an electric pendulum drive.

Life

Teaching and wandering (until 1845)

Sebastian Geist was born on July 22, 1817 as the son of the painter and tüncher Caspar Geist and his wife Anna Maria Cornel in Volkach. The father came from Hoheim near Kitzingen and had moved to the country town because of the better income opportunities . The family lived at Oberen Markt 7 , what was then Saumarkt. Geist was the youngest of seven children, but three of his siblings had died at birth.

Geist attended the elementary school in the Volkach town hall early, probably in the 1920s, together with his older brother Peter Geist , who later became a famous genre painter . In 1828 the father, who often had to struggle with financial problems, sent the two brothers to live with relatives in Vienna . Sebastian, then eleven years old, started hiking with Peter and reached Austria that same year.

There he was initially an apprentice to a car painter , but had to break off the training after six weeks due to physical weakness. Now Sebastian tried half a year as Gürtler , before an apprentice watchmaker in the Vienna district Neulerchenfeld began. Again he only stayed there for a short time, as the so-called watchmaker only made individual parts for chronometers and therefore no real training was possible.

Sebastian Geist began his fourth apprenticeship on August 25, 1831. Again, the watchmaking profession was his goal. His master was Johann Seiberl from Schottenfeld , who had his shop at Kaiserstraße 309. Sebastian stayed there until February 21, 1835. From July 14, 1836, he went on a journey of almost ten years, which took Geist through Austria and large parts of the Kingdom of Bavaria .

Watchmaker and retired (until 1908)

The watchmaker only settled down on June 30, 1845. He attended the master's school in Aschaffenburg and completed his training on May 19, 1847 with the master's examination and the rating “valuable”. On June 5, 1847, Sebastian Geist received a position in Würzburg . He became managing director of the watch factory Gebrüder Bollermann. It was not until February 24, 1848, however, that he received citizenship approval for the episcopal city.

He moved into house number eleven on Domstrasse and opened his own watchmaker's shop there on May 1, 1849. On November 18, 1849, he married Ursina Katharina Peter, a woman from Würzburg. Geist soon began to experiment with so-called astronomical clocks, which he built alongside the usual repairs. In 1852 he took part in the clock exhibition in nearby Bad Brückenau , where he managed to sell one of his chronometers to the Empress of Russia , Alexandra Feodorovna .

Sebastian Geist also trained watchmakers. His most famous apprentice, Ludwig Strasser , later became a specialist teacher at the German Watchmaking School. After 1865 Geist began to use the emerging electricity for new watch models and soon afterwards was the first to produce a watch with an electric clock pendulum drive. Due to the problems caused by fluctuating currents, however, he only produced three such watches.

In addition to watchmaking, Geist was also involved in matters relating to his new hometown. For 25 years he was a member of the Central Polytechnic Association and co-founder of the city's volunteer fire department . He also ran as a member of the Democratic Party for the Reichstag. Nevertheless, the watchmaker was constantly threatened by material shortages, as he had seven sons and four daughters. When his wife died on June 1, 1874, the business had become unprofitable.

This decisive event led to the business being closed in 1875. Geist sold his house in Würzburg's old town and moved to Heidingsfeld on the outskirts . From there he began to travel. He twice visited his sons who had emigrated to America. He later traveled to Bad Tölz , Munich and Rosenheim to visit relatives. Sebastian Geist died on December 5, 1908 in Rosenheim and was buried next to his wife in the Würzburg main cemetery.

Clocks

Geist's great pioneering achievement was the manufacture of a clock with an electrically operated pendulum. He planned to make the pendulum independent of the strength of the current . To do this, he attached a spring suspension, a wooden pendulum and a brass lens. The lower pin of the suspension spring was lengthened and also served as a contact pin. The watchmaker, however, forgot to improve the contacts and so Geist was denied a lasting success of his invention.

literature

  • G. Frischholz: Master watchmaker Sebastian Geist, Würzburg. A pioneer in the field of electrical clocks. In: Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung. Volume 54, 1930, pp. 364-366 and pp. 455-458.
  • WGA Haupt: honorary citizen and deserving citizen from Volkach. In: Stadt Volkach (ed.): Volkach am Main. 1258-1958 . Volkach 1958, pp. 51-76.

Web links

Commons : Sebastian Geist  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Frischholz: Master watchmaker Sebastian Geist, Würzburg. 1930, p. 364.
  2. ^ WGA main: honorary citizen and deserving citizen from Volkach. 1958, p. 68.
  3. ↑ G. Frischholz: Master watchmaker Sebastian Geist, Würzburg. 1930, p. 365.
  4. ↑ G. Frischholz: Master watchmaker Sebastian Geist, Würzburg. 1930, p. 365.
  5. ↑ G. Frischholz: Master watchmaker Sebastian Geist, Würzburg. 1930, p. 366.
  6. ↑ G. Frischholz: Master watchmaker Sebastian Geist, Würzburg. 1930, p. 458.
personal data
SURNAME Spirit, Sebastian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German watchmaker
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Volkach
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1908
Place of death Rosenheim