POSTER 2016, PRAGUE MAY 24 1
The First Factory Gasworks in Český Dub
Simona NOSKOVÁ1
1 Dept. of Management, Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies, Czech Technical University in Prague, Kolejní 2637/2a, 160 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
Abstract. The aim of this paper is to analyse the creation, detail yet. Maybe it is due to the “private nature” of these expansion and extinction of gasworks in the factory structures. grounds of one significant wool-processing company in the Nevertheless, the factory gasworks were a great northern Bohemia in the context of historical, architectural modernization element, which affiliated technology with and technical development. The research is based on the everyday life. This theme belongs to the widely watched studies of archive materials and literature. This topic topics and helps us with understanding the development of wasn’t truly mapped out yet, therefore the focus on the modern society in the 19th century. Gasworks objects and sources is really necessary and that’s why the archival their remains are also very interesting part of industrial funds are described in a separate section. heritage, which is highly studied. The observed gasworks was a part of the “lower factory,” one of two plants in Český Dub, which belonged to Franz Schmitt. The gasworks as the technical constructions accompanied factory complexes at a safe distance and were formed primarily for the purpose of lighting the production. They were often used for lighting of the towns, where the textile companies operated, and therefore they contributed to raising the living standards of the local population.
Keywords Poster2016, gasworks, textile, factory, Český Dub. Fig. 2. The gasworks near the lower factory in detail, 1897. See [6].
2. Sources and Literature
2.1 Archival Funds and Industrial Albums The archival research is very complicated in this case. The materials are scattered in various archival funds and many institutions such as archives of Building Authorities in Český Dub, Státní oblastní archiv Litoměřice, branch office Most, Státní okresní archiv Liberec, Podještědské museum a knihovna, p.o., in Český Dub, Severočeské Fig. 1. The lower factory in Český Dub, 1890. Gasworks is muzeum v Liberci and so on. In these collections are many marked as Gas-Anstalt. See [5]. different types of sources and each one of them needs a specific approach. Most of the documents are also written in German. 1. Introduction The very important types of sources are the corporate The gasworks in factory grounds, in contrast with the archives of individual textile companies. These funds can gasworks, which were built by city councils and were used contain various materials, from the accounting documents, mainly for the public lighting, haven’t been charted in over situation plans and construction documentation, to the cloth samplers. In many cases they are very fragmental. 2 S. NOSKOVÁ, THE FIRST FACTORY GASWORKS IN ČESKÝ DUB
The fundamental collection for this topic is fund the construction-planning documentation. This evidence is “Franz Schmitt, továrna Český Dub,” which is very well stored in case of standing objects in archives of Building preserved and contains over 70 boxes and 70 books. Authorities of towns. In case of demolitions the funds are Materials about the gasworks are in box number 18, saved in the state and regional district archives. But no inventory number 167. Here we can find a lot of file materials were found in these collections. documents, mainly from the forties of 20th century. Although in the same box, inventory number 165, are documents marked “Gaswächterhaus,” which is one of the buildings accompanying the technical structure, the files are empty. Image materials can be found in the box number 71, inventory number 494, and one photograph is in the witness book number 1, inventory number 10.
Fig. 5. The sample of a land planning documentation of gasworks in 1944 taken from fund Franz Schmitt. See [4]. Attention will be paid of course to printed sources – the industrial albums. The oldest material is The Album der Industrie des Reichenberger Handelskammer-Bezirks collected by Anton Anschiringer. This album was created Fig. 3. The only photograph of gasworks from the witness book in the time the gasworks in Český Dub was built, so here in fund Franz Schmitt shows the state of this technical construction in 1925. See [2]. isn’t any information about this technical building. The second album, Die Gross-Industrie Österreichs: Festgabe Further sources for our research are the funds zum glorreichen sechzigjährigen Regierungs-Jubliläum originated from the activities of towns – the archive of seiner Majestät des Kaisers Franz Josef I. doesn’t mention town Český Dub, stored in Státní okresní archiv Liberec. gasworks at all, even though it was created at the turn of This collection has over 80 boxes named “German the 19th and 20th century, when the gasworks in Český Dub documents,” so it’s almost impossible to find something was still in use. useful without examination all of these boxes. Chronicles, which are an integral part of these funds, can sometimes offer a lot of information, mainly about the affiliating 2.2 Literature technology with everyday life. The essential publication about gas industry is the Finally we have funds containing family archives or three-part book Plynárenství by František Perna, Rudolf personal estates of entrepreneurs. In this case, we can find Riedl and more co-authors (see [11]). History of gas documents of this type partly in the fund of Franz Schmitt, industry was processed by already mentioned author partly in the funds stored in the Podještědské museum Rudolf Riedl: Historie Plynárenství a jeho Vývoj a knihovna, p.o. v Československu, but he only mentioned the town gasworks (see [13]). Another book Kronika Plynárenství, written by Rudolf Novák, mentions one factory gasworks, the technical building of Johann Liebieg’s plant in Liberec (see [10], p. 26). Only few information of these factory constructions can be found in books focusing on industrial heritage as is Industriál Libereckého kraje (see [14]) and Technické Památky v Čechách, na Moravě a ve Slezsku (see [15]).
Fig. 4. The photograph sample from collection stored in Podještědské museum a knihovna, p.o. shows the gasworks on the left and lower factory on the right. The photograph is without date. See [1]. To capture the development of design solutions and Fig. 6. Timeline. Red area – factory gasworks in northern architectural proposals of gasworks is very useful to check Bohemia, blue area – public town gasworks. [2] [10] POSTER 2016, PRAGUE MAY 24 3
3. The Gasworks in Český Dub plan building with gas holder, was built apparently in the placement of the grey marked floor plan likely due to Český Dub is a small town in northern Bohemia and ensure greater safety. thanks to Franz Schmitt it became one of the places with great developed industry in the Czech Lands. The Schmitt family owned several textile factories, which two of them were in Český Dub, and belonged to the wealthiest and most successful entrepreneurs in the wool processing industry in the district of The Business and Trade Chamber in Liberec. To build a gasworks meant new opportunities for the company. The working hours could be extended. The light from gas was more even and more sufficient than oil lamps. It also didn’t slant the colours of the materials as much. The decision to found gasworks near the factory grounds was very farsighted and the company could become more productive. Fig. 8. The lower factory ground of the company F. Schmitt in Český Dub after modernization in sixties, 1872. The 3.1 Creation gasworks is on the right. See [6]. The gasworks, which powered the lights initially in the so called lower factory and later in both of Franz 3.2 Expansion Schmitt’s factory premises in Český Dub, his residence and probably the villa of his heir too, was built in 1861. That The company was very successful and the production was almost twenty years after Franz Schmitt came into this was extended. The old gasometer became insufficient for town and started his business by founding the lower and the whole factory and in the year 1868 was the gasworks upper factories. enlarged by one more gas holder. The capacity of both gas holders was near 46 000 m3 (see [9], p. 94). Unfortunately, we found no records of gas consumption. The Gasworks enlargement went hand in hand with the realized expansion of the factory premises in late sixties. The lower factory after the extension can be seen in fig. 8. The modernized gasworks consisted of prime rectangular floor plan building with two walled gasometers – the old one directly connected to the main structure, the new one built nearby. These constructions had a non- decorated façade and white plaster. The technical units Fig. 7. The creation of gasworks (the grey and red highlighted floor plan) near the lower factory in 1862. See [4]. were accompanied with smaller affiliated objects, which one of them was wooden. The image materials (fig. 2, 3, 4) By coincidence, it was nearly 20 years after the first stored in the archive collections show us, that after the factory gasworks in Czech Lands was established. The unit expansion of this technical building it wasn’t significantly in Liberec, which was founded by Johann Liebieg, was changed until the collapse of the company Franz Schmitt, producing gas from the American resin (see [8], p. 28). In at least in the outward form of objects. We haven’t found some sources is mentioned a bone gas (see [10], p. 26), any information about the interior devices and the side product resulting from the production of bone coal, equipment changes yet, so the technical development is which was used as a black dye. Perhaps both of the above almost impossible to map out. mentioned gases were used, until the coal became the most important material for the gas production. Compared to that, gasworks in Český Dub was from the beginning dependent strictly on coal. How the first gasworks in Český Dub looked like after the completion, unfortunately, we are not able to find out. No image material from that time was preserved. It was built in the safe distance from the lower factory, on the other side of former “Strasse von Münchengrätz,” nowadays “Husova ul.” It seems that in the year of 1862 the unit was expanded – which suggest the site plan (see fig. 7). Two floor plans of the gasworks (one red, one grey) Fig. 9. The lower factory after modernization in eighties, 1893. probably show us the two options of its possible The gasworks is on the right. See [6]. placements. The technical construction, rectangular floor 4 S. NOSKOVÁ, THE FIRST FACTORY GASWORKS IN ČESKÝ DUB
Until the modernization time the gas lightning was expanded and its objects have received relatively uniform only for the private use. After the extension of the unit character in 1868. The layout of objects remained almost there was enough gas to enable for more, non-productive the same until the forties of the 20th century, when the part utilization. In early seventies the gas was offered to power of the buildings was demolished. Today, two standing the public lights and between the years 1872 and 1873 the objects of former gasworks have found a different purpose gasification of Český Dub occurred. The company Franz and serve as facilities for a transport company. Schmitt have installed 30 gas street lights around town’s square and in some streets (see [9], p. 89). The town paid to the company only for the gas consumption, so it was Acknowledgements comparatively cheap (see [7]). Research described in the paper was supervised by The Era of gas as a main source for lightning was Doc. RNDr. Martina Bečvářová, Ph.D., FTS CTU in almost near the end. The gasworks was working until 1924, Prague, and supported by CTU Students Grant Competition virtually unchanged, but the gas lighting in the factory under grant No. SGS16/125/OHK5/1T/32. grounds was replaced with electrical lighting (designed by the company Siemens & Halske) already in 1884–1885 (see [12], p. 681), when the another modernization of the factory grounds occurred. The complete electrification of References the factories came in 1896, for Český Dub it was in 1923, [1] Podještědské museum a knihovna, p.o., fund Franz Schmitt, file 011 with a great help from the company Franz Schmitt. “Fotografie firma.” [2] Státní okresní archiv (SOkA) Liberec, Fund F. Schmitt, továrna Český Dub (FS), inv. n 10, m. II/1, book 1. 3.3 After the demise of the company [3] SOkA Liberec, Fund FS, továrna Český Dub, inv. n 165, m. III/2b, The company of Franz Schmitt haven’t overcome the box 18. crisis of the thirties. The last department in the factory [4] SOkA Liberec, Fund FS, inv. n 167, m. III/2b, box 18. grounds in Český Dub was closed in 1933. Immediately [5] SOkA Liberec, Fund FS, inv. n 388, m. VIIIb, file 2. after that some of the equipment and machines were sold, followed by a liquidation of some buildings of the lower [6] SOkA Liberec, Fund FS, inv. n 494, m. IX-a, box 71. factory, but the gasworks remained and was offered for [7] SOkA Liberec, Kronika obce Český Dub I. 1918–1925. sale. Most materials in the fund Franz Schmitt, inventory [8] BERGMANOVÁ, V. Textilana v Obrazech a Datech. Liberec: number 167, are related to the sale. Gas holder and some of Technická univerzita, 2008. the affiliated objects were demolished between 1943 and [9] JODAS, Z. Český Dub a Okolí na Dobových Obrázcích. Liberec: 1945, only the building with rectangular floor plan and RK, 2009. small object beside the road retained. [10] NOVÁK, R. Kronika Plynárenství. Praha: Milpo, 1997. [11] PERNA, F. Plynárenství I, II, III. Praha: Technicko-vědecké vydavatelství, 1952–58. [12] RESSEL, A. F. Heimatskunde des Reichenberger Bezirkes. Stadt und Land. II. Band, Reichenberg 1903–1905. [13] RIEDL, R. Sborník Vysoké Školy Chemicko-technologické v Praze. A 20, Historie Plynárenství a jeho Vývoj v Československu. Praha: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1978. Fig. 10. The gasworks in 1943 with highlighted pipeline. [4] [14] Industriál Libereckého Kraje: Technické Stavby a Průmyslová Today ČSAD Liberec, a.s., owns the last two standing Architektura. Praha: ČVUT, Výzkumné centrum průmyslového buildings, which serve as a transport objects but are not in dědictví, 2007. a good condition. [15] Technické Památky v Čechách, na Moravě a ve Slezsku. I–IV. Praha: Libri, 2002–2004.
4. Conclusion About the Author Gasworks in Český Dub has become a significant element for modernization of the company Franz Schmitt Simona NOSKOVÁ was born in and the factory grounds, mainly due to the increased Sokolov in 1987. She studied History at possibility of production and improved working conditions. the TU in Liberec and now she is an Later it also became important for the town population, internal doctor student at the MIAS at raising their standards of living. the CTU in Prague. She is interested in the history of textile industry, To trace the unit’s development was a difficult task entrepreneurial families and industrial since the preserved materials are very fragmental. Seven heritage. years after the unit’s establishment in 1861 it has been