Detonator factory Troisdorf

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The detonator factory in Troisdorf was a production facility for detonators in Troisdorf .

On January 11, 1886, Emil Müller founded the Rheinisch-Westfälische Sprengstoff-Actien-Gesellschaft (RWS) in Cologne . In the same year, on the recommendation of Wilhelm Englaender, a legal advisor of the Sal. Oppenheim bank from Troisdorf , he began building a factory with 30 brick and half-timbered houses there.

The first production of detonators started in 1887. Emil Müller initially used fumed mercury and potassium chlorate as the initial igniter, as was the case with the igniter developed by Alfred Nobel and, for the first time, metal cylinders. Later the explosives picric acid , TNT (Trotyl) and Tetryl were used. A company for the production of electrical ignitions, the FEZ, was affiliated to the RWS around 1900.

In 1903 the plant was expanded to Oberlar , which led to a dispute over trade tax between the municipalities of Troisdorf and Sieglar .

In 1909 the fiery mercury was replaced by the cheaper lead azide . From 1911 the factory in Troisdorf produced Tetryl itself and later exported it abroad.

Emil Müller died in December 1910. General Director Dr. Paul Müller then took over the management of RWS.

In 1916 the growing plant received its own rail connection. The workforce had increased from 65 to 1,600 during that time.

In the years of the First World War was tubes powder 05 produced. As production was insufficient, a war powder factory was built at RWS . Up to 6000 people were employed here. To supply the workers, the Sieglarer Schirmeshof was acquired with 380 acres of land and its own butcher and bakery was set up.

In 1916 the FEZ was relocated to Porz and Hochkreuz for reasons of space .

In June 1931, retroactive to January 1st of the same year, RWS (based in Cologne) merged with other West German explosives plants and the Hamburg-based Dynamit Aktiengesellschaft to form Dynamit AG , based in Troisdorf. Since 1959 the company has been called Dynamit Nobel AG .

literature

  • Karlheinz Ossendorf: A giant factory grew out of a small detonator. 100 years of the Troisdorf detonator factory 1886–1986. In: Yearbook of the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis ( ISSN  0932-0377 ), 2nd year 1987. Rheinlandia Verlag, Siegburg 1986, ISBN 3-925551-02-6 , p. 113 ff.