Vincent Sterz

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Vinzenz Sterz (date and place of birth unknown; † August 23, 1828 , probably in Pitten in Lower Austria ) was an Austrian technician and entrepreneur . In 1819 he built the first functioning paper machine of the Habsburg monarchy and laid the foundation stone for the kk priv. Pitten paper factory .

The first paper machine in Austria

Little is known about Vinzenz Sterz, except that from 1819 he revolutionized paper production in the Habsburg monarchy. He also founded the kk priv. Paper factory in Pitten in 1828 . The paper machine , which made it possible for the first time to produce paper by machine and not by hand, was an adaptation of an invention by Bryan Donkin . It was therefore also called the "Donkin Machine". With this innovation, the Danube monarchy was no longer dependent on paper imports.

As director of the Franzensthal paper mill near Ebergassing - which had been founded by Thomas von Trattner in 1770 - Vinzenz Sterz built the machine in 1819 and received the state privilege to produce the machine-made paper as the only domestic paper manufacturer for the entire monarchy. Since the paper rolls could be "infinitely" long, the production was also called "paper without end".

From 1820 the Franzensthal paper factory also supplied the Oesterreichische Nationalbank with paper for banknotes . In the following years Vinzenz Sterz improved his machine and constructed a cutting machine. After further inventions and improvements, he founded a paper mill in Pitten in 1828. The Pitten Paper Manufactory S. & Co. , later known as kk priv. Pitten Paper Factory , began production in a former grinding and sawmill. In the same year, however, Vinzenz Sterz died.

kk priv. Pitten paper mill

The widow Magdalena Sterz took over the business with the partners Johann Friedrich Rümmelein, Christoph Hartwig and Philipp Heinrich Werdmüller von Elgg. There were further improvements to the old and new machines, which led to the company being awarded the bronze medal at the first Austrian trade fair in 1835.

Heinrich Werdmüller von Elgg has a detailed report of the violent earthquake of March 14, 1837, which he experienced while reading the descriptions of the moorland breach in County Antrim in Ireland in the factory's laboratory.

In 1853, Wilhelm Hamburger, the second paper manufacturer in Pitten, took over the company at short notice, before the Actiengesellschaft kk priv. Pitten paper factory was founded in 1858 . After the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the company ran into financial difficulties, which the long-time director Wilhelm Coulon got under control again. At the World Exhibition in 1873, the company was mentioned as the most important manufacturer of medium-fine paper. From 1873 onwards, the factory also supplied the necessary roll paper for newspaper printing, which was first produced in Austria. Thus, the kk priv. Pitten paper factory supplied the Austrian press.

Incidentally, the architect Otto Hieser had rebuilt the local castle in Pitten for the successful director. Wilhelm Coulon's work was successfully continued by his successor Ferdinand Hauschka from 1884. Incidentally, Otto Hieser also built a huge villa in Vienna for Ferdinand Hauschka. At the turn of the century, the privately owned Pitten paper factory was the third largest of its kind in what is now Austria , after Leykam-Josephsthal AG , whose cornerstone was laid by Andreas Leykam in 1793 , and Neusiedler AG für Papierfabrikation , also founded in 1793.

The company expanded and took over other paper mills in the area. From 1906 onwards, Leykam-Josephsthal AG gradually took over the majority of the shares in the Pitten paper mill through the Wiener Bankverein . In 1926, the Pittener Papierfabrik AG was completely absorbed by the Leykam Group.

The factory in Pitten was shut down in 1931, 103 years after it was founded by Vinzenz Sterz.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Handbook for travelers through the Austrian monarchy . Munich 1834, p. 119
  2. ^ Report on the first general Austrian trade product exhibition in 1835 . Vienna 1835, p. 150
  3. ↑ Report on the earth shake of March 14, 1837 in Annalen der Physik (1837) 118, pp. 685-690
  4. ^ Wisso Weiss: Timeline for the history of paper . Leipzig 1983, p. 377.
personal data
SURNAME Sterz, Vincent
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sterz, Vincenz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian technician and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH 18th century
DATE OF DEATH 23 August 1828
Place of death Pitten