Vienna crystal ice factory
| Vienna crystal ice factory | |
|---|---|
| legal form | |
| founding | 1884 |
| resolution | 1917 |
| Seat | Vienna |
| Branch | Food and luxury food industry (food industry) |
The Wiener Krystall-Eis-Fabrik , originally: Wiener Krystall-Eis-Fabrik Moritz Faber , was an important Austrian company in Austria-Hungary and before the First World War . The ice cream factory was on Klosterneuburger Strasse .
history
In the mild winter of 1873, which spanned pretty much all of Central Europe , the ice harvest was so inadequate that the lack of ice became a problem in large cities. Only the ice import from the far north, which was quickly put into operation, was able to provide some temporary relief under great circumstances. This fact gave the artificial production of ice a powerful boost in the following years. With the invention and development of cooling technology by Carl von Linde , Raoul Pictet and others, machines for the artificial generation of cold and ice could be used on an industrial scale. All industries, which had low temperatures as a manufacturing condition, quickly used these new inventions and the ice supply of large cities was also secured against the consequences of uncertain ice harvests by setting up ice factories.
In Vienna attempts had been made earlier to produce commercial ice with machines of an older system, but attempts mainly failed because of the imperfection of the machines used. Instead, people still relied on Vienna's convenient and cheap natural ice supply in normal winters through the large ice surfaces that formed the backwaters of the regulated Danube .
The industrialist Moritz Faber (1837–1921), owner of the Liesinger Actien brewery , recognized the significant advantages of the newer ice machines over the older systems and, despite previous failures, decided in 1883 to set up an ice factory with the most modern systems. The factory was built at Klosterneuburger Straße 95 (today: 93-97), Vienna-Leopoldstadt (today: Vienna-Brigittenau ) (city office: Akademiestraße 4).
He commissioned the engineer Karl Heimpel (* August 18, 1852 , † September 4, 1917 in Aeschach ) with the development of a project and the construction of the entire system. Karl Heimpel had been an employee of Carl Linde in his company for Linde's ice machines and had settled in Vienna in 1881 as an independent agent. The preliminary daily production should be around 50,000 kilograms of ice, the intention was to produce so-called crystal ice in blocks of around 25 kilograms. The delivery of the steam engines and ice machines were entrusted to Linde AG. The system comprised an ice generator designed with Linde's clear ice apparatus with a mechanical device for filling, emptying and moving the rows of cells, containing around 2000 cells. A very perfectly built transmission crane was placed above the ice generator, which made it possible to pull out and insert the rows of cells in the simplest possible way. The refrigeration was provided by two Linde refrigeration machines with a total cooling capacity of around 250,000 kcal / h (in today's units this corresponds to around 290 kW ). The steam engine with around 150 horse power, which was directly coupled to the compressors of the cooling machines, was equipped with Sulzer valve control and condensation . Three Tenbrink steam boilers, each with a heating surface of 60 square meters, provided the necessary operating steam. A water pumping station with an hourly capacity of around 500 hectoliters completed the facility.
In addition to the structures required to accommodate the above factory equipment, the implementation of a stable for 18 horses was planned and the office space and above that the factory manager's apartment were connected to this stable building.
A suitable reason in Brigittenau, where pure and good water was available in large quantities, was soon won. Construction of the facility could only begin on March 8, 1884 after many days of rain.
The unfavorable ice harvest in the winter of 1884 and the resulting rapid rise in ice prices gave reason to hope for success for this year, if commissioning could be made possible within the season. That is why construction and assembly were accelerated so that the first ice cream was removed from the machine at the end of July of the same year and regular sales in the city started in the first days of August. Karl Heimpel was entrusted with the management of the establishment.
The first few months of operation already showed that Vienna was happy to take up the entire production volume of the factory even in normal years.
This led to the construction of a second half-size facility in order to keep ice cream sales upright in the event of malfunctions at the first facility as a reserve facility.
This second system received an independent 80 HP strong Sulzer valve steam engine, a Linde cooling machine for around 150,000 kcal hourly output (in today's units this corresponds to an output of approx. 175 kW ) and a generator for a daily output of 35,000 kilograms of crystal ice . The second system was built after the proven first system. This reserve system could still be put into operation in 1885.
The most important investments in the following years were the significant expansion of the car park with the construction of the associated stables and sheds, as well as the installation of a small cooling machine to pre-cool the freezing water in order to increase the production rate in an economical way.
Despite all the protests of the natural ice cream dealers, the artificial ice gained an ever-growing customer base thanks to its purity and convenient shape. In 1891, a further expansion of the establishment was planned. A facility with a daily output of 50,000 kilograms, completely insulated in terms of construction and equipment, was put into operation in 1892. At the same time, the company also became the property of Carl Faber, the founder's son.
With the exception of minor improvements, all of the machines and equipment were the same as those of the first proven system. Complete independence of this new system was considered appropriate in the interests of absolute operational safety.
The danger of cholera in 1893 made people want to have ice from distilled water available, which was met by building a large distillation plant for the production of around 800 hectoliters of distilled water in 24 hours. However, as the need for such completely sterilized ice disappeared with the end of the cholera, this facility was not put into operation.
The fourth, again completely independent, enlargement with the same machines and apparatus and a production figure of well over 50,000 kilograms per day was planned and carried out in 1897, so that from 1898 the factory was able to produce 190,000 kilograms of ice cream per day, with forced operation 200,000 kilograms to create. The production figure thus reached a level that has not been proven by any factory for commercial ice cream in Europe.
With the enlargement of the factory equipment, the number of vehicles was increased, the stables, living quarters and administrative rooms were expanded.
Around 1900 the establishment housed eight steam boilers in three boiler houses with two chimneys, which had to supply four steam engines with a total of around 500 horse power. The steam engines drove seven Linde cooling machines and a pre-cooling machine, which produced the crystal ice in four separate generators. Stables for around 70 to 80 horses as well as corresponding sheds etc. took up the car park, and an in-house blacksmith took care of the horse shoes. Spacious apartments for civil servants, the stable master, the chief machinist etc. as well as a separate house for the director completed the structural arrangement.
Depending on the intensity of the operation, 80 to 100 foremen, ice wearers, coachmen and unskilled workers were employed, headed by three officials, a stable master, a chief machinist and a course smith in addition to the director. A city defeat, also serving as an information office, was administered by a separate official.
The extent to which this establishment met an urgent public need was best demonstrated by the rapidly acquired popularity of artificial ice and the rapid expansion of the factory that it made possible. The establishment was by no means denied public recognition. The company received the honorary diploma of the first degree at the International Exhibition for Food and Household Supplies in 1891, as well as the recognition diploma of the Imperial and Royal Horticultural Society in 1893, and the honorary diploma at the International Exhibition for Folk Food, Army Food, etc. in 1894.
Due to the merits and the high quality of the products, the owner received the farm title as a special award in 1898, the company Wiener Krystall-Eis-Fabrik Carl Faber was allowed to call itself kuk Hof-Eisfabrik .
The company grew so fast that it ended up having a monopoly on ice cream production. However, this was increasingly felt by customers as a burden, as prices skyrocketed, especially after the ice-free winter of 1897/1898. In response to this, in 1898 seven cooperatives of the approval trade ( i.e. the supply of the community citizens with food) founded their own ice factory in Brigittenau, today's United Ice Factory and Cooling Hall in Vienna . The Wiener Krystall-Eis-Fabrik was faced with increasing competition from this new factory.
The outbreak of the First World War made the situation more difficult, and in 1917 the Viennese Krystall-Eis-Fabrik was finally bought by the Genossenschaftseisfabrik. The Brigittenau indoor swimming pool is located on the former factory site on Klosterneuburger Strasse.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wiener Krystall-Eis-Fabrik, in: Die Gross-Industrie Oesterreichs. Ceremony for the glorious fiftieth anniversary of the reign of His Majesty the Emperor Franz Josef I, presented by the industrialists of Austria in 1898. Volume 6. Weiss, Vienna 1898, p. 221.
- ↑ ( Parte :) PT Filled with deep sorrow, (...) engineer Karl Heimpel (...). In: Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 19054/1917, September 7, 1917, p. 12, bottom. (Online at ANNO ). .
- ↑ No 0037 Method and device for defrosting air cooling pipes . In: Uwe Wolfinger (Red.): Idea No 0001–0060. 1879-1890. From refrigeration pioneer to international technology leader . Wiesbaden 2004, p. 19. - Text online ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 0.5 MB), accessed on June 24, 2013.
- ↑ Festschrift. 1898-1973: 75 years of the Vereinigte Eisfabriken und Kuehlhallen in Vienna regGesmbH. Vienna 1973.
literature
- Hans-Liudger Dienel: The Linde AG. History of a technology company 1879-2004 . CH Beck, Munich 2004. ISBN 3-85202-129-4 . P. 82.
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 14 ′ 7.9 ″ N , 16 ° 21 ′ 52.9 ″ E