In Memoriam:
Franz Clouth (1838 - 1910)
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Old Clouth firm Logo
Altreifen
Balloon Gondola
Cöln Beginning of 20 Century.
Franz Clouth
Bronze F. Clouth Bust
Clouth Book Nr.1
Diving Helmet Clouth
Clouth-Wappen 1923
Clouth Balloon XI
Rechtsanwalt J.P. Clouth
Ehefrau Audrey Clouth
Bryan, Oliver, Phillip Clouth
Max Clouth
Clouth Balloon Sirius
Kautschuk Golfball
Clouth Factory Front
Younger Franz Clouth
Eugen Clouth
Clouth Factory
Air Ship Advert
Clouth Money
Old Clouth Crest
Car tyres
Old Car
OLd Daimler
Excavator with conveyor belt
Clouth VIII Balloon
Wilhelm Clouth
Katharina Clouth
Caoutchouc Golfball
Draft of Clouth Memorial
Old Catholic Church Köln
Cable Tower
Clouth IX
Ticket for Clouth IX Drive
Clouth IX
Clouth Buch 2.Edition
old Franz Clouth
Balloon Gondola
Butzweilerhof Airport
Caoutchouc-Tree
Caoutchouc Sheets
Caoutchouc-Copy Mashine
Water-Regulator
old Land & See Logo
Land & See New logo
Franz Clouth
Richard Clouth
Industrieverein Altlogo
Conveyor Belt Hall
Gate 2 to Clouth Works
Atlantic Cable
von Podbielski Cable Layer Sound Silencer "Clouth Ei"(Egg)
Printery Wilhelm Clouth
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From natural product to industrial product
When company founder Franz Clouth founded one of the first rubber manufactures in Germany mor than a century ago, the raw material rubber required for this purpose had to be imported exclusively from South America, because only there grew rubber trees from whose thickly liquid natural rubber was extracted. part of Conveyor belt with inner steel cables for stability Already Columbus saw in South America natives play with jumping balls, which were made from hardened plant juice. This fascinated the Spaniards brought rubber to Europe. It was not until much later that the British discovered other possibilities for the use of this natural substance. It was noticed that rubbing can be used to remove pencil marks from paper, which gave the material the English name 'rubber' (rubbing). In 1823, Charles Macintosh reported the first patent for a product using rubber. He applied a thin layer of rubber between two layers of textile fibers and thus became the inventor of the raincoat (still called 'mack' in England). Rubber had the unpleasant property of being soft and sticky at high temperatures, but being leathery and hard in the cold. The American Charles Goodyear found out in 1839 how to take these properties to the rubber. Inadvertently, a mixture of rubber and sulfur fell coincidently on a hot plate. He scraped it off immediately, realizing to his astonishment that the mixture, though still warm, felt dry and not soft and sticky. The material also remained elastic in the cold. This discovery marked the birthdays of the rubber industry, which experienced a rapid ascent with increasing industrialization. The process of adding sulfur to the rubber is known as vulcanization (according to the Roman fire-god Vulcan). With the end of the 19th century plant seeds were smuggled to Europe. In Indonesia and parts of Asia large rubber plantations by European colonial powers were established. However, as early as the beginning of this century (1909), the first synthetic rubbers were produced as an invention from Bayer Leverkusen/Germany, which were in competition of great importance to the natural raw material. Part of the Clouth site has not been used for production since 2007 until 2015, but rented for commercial purposes. In 2015, the entire company area was cleared for a new housing construction project. The first known company view from 1873 - below the stylized representation of the founder Franz Clouth on horseback. In fact, at that time he rode from his apartment in the Kölner Sternengasse every morning to the then still unpaved Hohestraße to his factory in the then community of Nippes
140 Years Clouth Works in Köln Nippes
Firm site ca 1873 as Colorit
Firm Site ca 1873 as B/W Print
Firm Site app.1900
Firm Site app. 1900
Firm 1945 Clouth & Land and See were also equipping the Wehrmacht (German army), therefore one of the main objects of Cologne to be bombed by allied forces
Clouth Works and Land & See Cable works in the 70th
start of complete teardown of factory in 2015
Watch live streaming video from clouth at livestream.com Clouth Gummiwerke AG - Rubber products from Cologne Nippes until 2015
The old-established Cologne company was the largest employer in Cologne-Nippes, and its development was always closely linked to that of the district. It was found, when coming from the Innere Kanalstrasse, the Niehlerstraße went out of town. After a few hundred meters, they were standing in front of the gatehouse and the adjoining administrative buildings of the company, which in the meantime had partly been declared an industrial monument, but essentially had to make way for a new residential development in 2015. Tradition was always given to this Cologne company already established in 1868 by the company founder Franz Clouth in the district of Nippes. If the first rubber products of the company were still suckers and hosiery, the emerging industry was supplied with rubber products such as roller covers, conveyor belts or belting after just a few years. As early as 1876, the company was advertising in the New York Trade Newspaper and had already employed more than 70 workers. According to the highs and lows in the company's history, there were lately only about 640 employees left. The company area covered 160,000 m2, which corresponds approximately to the area of 32 football fields. Applications of Clouth products
"Above the rooftops of ...." No, not Nice, but of the "Clouth Factory" in 2014 Photos from Manfred Backhausen
Laying sea cable laid sea Cables 1901 sea cable cross section
and the people to make it usefull
For baloons and zeppelins and their skins, it was just a step aside from a Mackingtosh
to
well, for diving puposes for baloons and zeppelins of course
1909 Zeppelins over Cologne, Clouth Airship on the right
New mashines were needed for that
Use of rubber for cars & bikes
Old tires Tire concept 2016 inner old tire structure Old tire
modern tires ref. Bicycle tires
Production of tires for bikes, lorries, etc.
Old garage for car repairs
Lots of experiments were made by handy firm owners themthelves at that time to find out how to use that new power supply system for their firms. The fight between Edison, America, and Swan, Scotland at that time obviously showed a lot of people, that again a new world was coming up, surprising also entrepeneurs.
Entrepeneur Franz Hubert Clouth was more or less forced to get interested in new products of his time and their use in his factories especially bakelt was similar to hardened rubber.So he was highly interested in the new synthetic material Bakelit, one of the first plastics made from pure synthetic components what ment: no purchases abroad, no transports from far far away. Just a chemical bottle could do it with more or less little effort. The new material again opened another new technical world for him. For entrepeneurs that ment: more money in sight!!,
Press releases about teardown of Clouth factory 2015
Sorry, just in german language at the moment: The following press releases were published during the last year 2015 and early 2016.
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For questions
and comments please contact by
info@rechtsanwalt-clouth.de
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