Rail hammer

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Rail hammer was the common name for an iron hammer , in which rail iron and bar iron as well as Deuchel for the iron trade and further processing were produced as semi-finished products . Since in these hammer mills the iron was forged into "rail iron" by means of a hammer , the iron form and hammer led to the name of such a work. The term rod hammer was used synonymously.

Production and trading forms for rail iron

Rail irons were elongated rectangular bars. It was helpful for the iron trade that rails and rods were standardized. According to the rules of the Upper Palatinate hammer cleaning, 12 rails weighed one hundredweight from Amberg (61 kg), a (work) rail thus around 5 kg; at, Radeisen were 15 to 16 rails per hundredweight. The iron was traded for pounds ( one pound consisted of 240 rails, that is about 1.22 t) and shilling (1 shilling = 30 pieces).

Other names for a work rail were tough rails , Zächschien or Zächisen . The wheel iron should be half as heavy as the work rail. There was also the abbogen Eisen (also called Abbogen or abbogen Schien ); these are work rails that have been cold-bent for quality testing. Residual products were brought to the market as rubble , which was summarized in the weight of a machine tool.

For example, the Grünhammer delivered ½ pound of rail iron a week in 1380, as did the Hammer in Rohrbach in 1370 ; In 1538, the Schwarzenfeld hammer produced an annual production of 60 pounds of rail iron (approx. 73 t), as did the Loch hammer mill .

The hammer sign had to be placed on every rail and rod, so that production and trade could be controlled. The hammer marks were protected.

Ore and charcoal

The rail hammers obviously had to be supplied with ore and charcoal. According to estimates, 1.55 pounds of mountain load ore (1 pound of mountain load corresponds to around 120 t) had to be delivered to a hammer mill annually . Two-wheeled carts were used for transportation; these could load a truckload (= load ) of two ore silk . An ore cup was a measure of capacity and held approx. 120 liters, which corresponded to around 280 kg when transporting ore.

For the production of 100 kg of rail iron (or the Deuchel produced in the process ), 200 kg of coal was needed; This was a high-quality charcoal that was obtained in a charcoal kiln, this in contrast to the pit charcoal, which was made from inferior types of wood, e.g. B. branches that have been burned in pits (sometimes also called sticks or knots). In the hammer mills in Wolfsbach and Leidersdorf , around 25.5 cubic feet (1 cubic foot = 0.024859 m³, a total of 0.6339045 m³) coal and 42 cubic feet (that is 1.044078 m³) were used to produce 1 hundredweight of Schien- or Deucheleisen iron ) Brushwood (mine coal) consumed.

Eisenlände in Regensburg with Amberg iron ships, prospectus by Hans Georg Bahre from 1630

Logistics of a rail hammer

The operation of a rail hammer required considerable logistical services: In the Upper Palatinate , the ore from the ore mines at Amberg and Sulzbach on Vils and Naab had to be taken by the boatmen (for the return trip, “Schiffsreiter” had to be available to pull the ships) to the hammer mills or to the stacking place in Regensburg (the so-called Eisenlände), 64 km away , to be reloaded there again and taken by land to the hammer mills on the Altmühl or the Laaber . If no iron processing plant was connected to a hammer (e.g. a tin hammer or gun hammer ), the bars and rails produced had to be brought to one.

For the production of the various types of charcoal and the procurement from the surrounding forests, lumberjacks and charcoal burners had to be found (for the Upper Palatinate it was estimated that around 1609 1,100 woodcutters and 1,460 charcoal burners were employed with their families) and carters had to be found for the transport become. After all, the iron produced had to be brought to the trading centers in Regensburg, Nuremberg or Ulm . It is estimated that around 78,000 loads of ore had to be handled for the Upper Palatinate in 1609, using 762 teams. Likewise, 106,000 loads of charcoal had to be handled, for which 492 vehicles were in service.

In addition, there is the general need to transport timber and dishes, the clay for racing ovens and extinguishing fires, the transport of lime as aggregate and the removal of slag; the hammer mills employed one or two carters and a "boy after". Investments also had to be made in the repair of the dams. It should be noted that the roads were not in an optimal condition at that time and the transport system was burdened by various charges (e.g. the "case fee" to the hammer lords when passing a hammer mill, "Weiherzins" for the use of dammed water to the sovereign , city stacking and customs costs).

literature

  • Dirk Götschmann: Upper Palatinate iron. Mining and iron industry in the 16th and 17th centuries. Edited by the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Mining and Industry Museum in East Bavaria (= Volume 5 of the series of publications by the Mining and Industry Museum in East Bavaria), Theuern 1985, p. 68. ISBN 3 924350 05 1 .
  • Ress, Franz Michael (1951). The iron trade of the Upper Palatinate in ancient times. Munich: Oldenbourg.
  • Ress, Franz Michael: History and economic importance of the Upper Palatinate iron industry from the beginning to the time of the 30 Years War. Publishing house of the Historical Association of Upper Palatinate and Regensburg, Regensburg 1950.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hammer cleaning in the Historical Lexicon of Bavaria
  2. ↑ http://www.zeno.org/Adelung-1793/A/Stabhammer,+der
  3. ^ Johann Heinrich Ludwig Bergius : New Policey and Cameral magazine, according to alphabetical order. 2nd vol., Leipzig 1776, pp. 182-184, 191-192. ( limited preview in Google Book search)
  4. ↑ Rail iron on medieval dictionary
  5. ↑ Götschmann, 1985, pp. 234f.
  6. ^ Franz Michael Ress, 1950, p. 65.
  7. ^ Götschmann, Dirk: Upper Palatinate iron. Mining and iron industry in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ed. Association of Friends and Patrons of the Mining and Industry Museum East Bavaria (= Volume 5 of the series of publications by the Mining and Industry Museum East Bavaria), Theuern 1985, p. 68. ISBN 3 924350 05 1 , cf. Note 69, chap. A. II. 2. and Appendix 1 and 3).
  8. ↑ Ignaz von Voith: The hammer to Aicholting or the hammer Neuenkerstorf. Negotiations of the Historical Association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg , 6 (1841) 3-67, pp. 52 and 55.
  9. ^ Franz Michael Ress, 1950, p. 103.
  10. ^ Franz Michael Ress, 1950, pp. 90ff.

See also