Steiner spinning mill (Rupperswil)
The spinning mill in Rupperswil was one of the first textile companies to manufacture cotton yarn in the Swiss canton of Aargau in the 19th century . The factory, which was closed in 1978, was rebuilt for commercial and residential purposes under the supervision of the cantonal preservation authorities, among others by the building cooperative Alte Spinnerei.
Location
The spinning mills are located on the right edge of the wide meadow landscape on the Aare below the old village center of Rupperswil , which lies on the edge of the slope on the southern edge of the Aare valley. At this location, it was possible to expand an older river next to the Aare, the Rupperswiler Giessen , into a commercial canal and use it to generate the energy for a small hydropower plant .
history
Richner spinning mill
The first spinning mill was set up in 1836 by a group of people from Rupperswil around the dealer and Councilor Jakob Richner († 1844). On August 8, 1836, the government council of the canton of Aargau approved the construction of a waterworks at Rupperswiler Giessen in the Aarenau. In 1837 the canal and on its right side the four-story factory building were built. As early as 1846, the company gave up operations due to economic difficulties.
Bebié spinning mill
On December 15, 1846, Heinrich Bebié (1788–1860), whose father Heinrich Bebié (1764–1836) had built a spinning mill in Turgi on the Limmat in 1826, bought the factory in Rupperswil. With a second waterwheel on the enlarged canal, he was able to work in the second, five-story factory building on the left side of the power plant. In 1871, 14,000 spindles were running on the machines.
In 1856 a spacious factory owner's villa was built nearby, and in 1867 a food house for some of the workers. In order to make it easier for factory workers from the villages on the Jura to get to the spinning mill, the company has been operating a Drathtseil passenger ferry across the Aare between Rupperswil and Auenstein since 1862 . The factory ferry was in operation until the Rupperswil-Auenstein power plant was built in 1942.
From 1883 on, an 87-meter-long groundwater sill in the Aare channeled more water into the canal, increasing the output of the power plant from 141.6 hp to 269.6 hp. With a new water rights concession dated April 23, 1898, the canton approved the replacement of the wheels with a water turbine and the higher damming of the Aare with dams on the Grundwuhr.
Spinning mill Steiner & Cie
From Bebié, the factory was bought in 1893 by Emil Steiner from Birrwil . Steiner increased the driving force again by having the upper and lower water canals widened again on the land in Schachen bought by the local community of Rupperswil. Only now have the water wheels been replaced by turbines from the Rieter machine factory in Winterthur , in accordance with the 1898 concession .
On February 8, 1918, a major fire destroyed the equipment in several machine rooms of the factory. That was the reason to modernize the plant. To drive the new machines, the Steiner spinning mill has been using electricity from the Aargau Electricity Works AEW, founded in 1916, since 1922 .
In the 20th century, the spinning mill in Rupperswil was one of the most modern textile factories in Switzerland. Shortly after 1960, she renewed the machine park by purchasing modern, automatic spinning equipment from Rieter. It was the first company in Switzerland to take the step towards a largely fully automated production process from the bale breakers to the spinning machines. But as early as 1978 the factory was shut down due to strong competition from foreign manufacturers.
See also
literature
- Willy Pfister: Rupperswil. From the old to the new village since 1800. Volume III, Rupperswil 1968, pp. 39–82.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 47 ° 24 '26.3 " N , 8 ° 7' 25.5" E ; CH1903: 651,711 / 250947